London pre-open: Stocks to edge lower as investors continue to mull payrolls
London stocks were set to edge lower at the open on Monday as investors continued to mull last week's better-than-expected non-farm payrolls report.
The FTSE 100 was called to open seven points lower at 7,546.
CMC Markets analyst David Madden said: "Friday’s US non-farm payrolls report came in much stronger than expected, and it got some traders questioning the intense chatter that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates this month. Much of the rally in global stocks in recent weeks have been driven by the speculation the US central bank would lower rates.
"The all-important economic release showed that 224,000 jobs were added in June, which comfortably topped the 160,000 forecast that economists held. The unemployment rate edged up to 3.7%, from 3.6% - which was a 50-year low. The yearly average earnings rate held steady at 3.1%, and keep in mind the CPI rate is 1.8%, so US workers are getting a nice increase in real wages.
"Some investors have fallen into the bad habit of viewing bad news as goods news, in that bad news for the economy is good news for the stock market. The respectable headline figures from the US jobs report, and the decent earnings number underlines the strength of the US economy."
In UK corporate news, Acacia Mining said second quarter gold production rose 19% year-on-year to 158,774 ounces mainly due to higher production at its North Mara mine in Tanzania.
“We remain confident of achieving production within our guidance of 500,000 to 550,000 ounces for the year,” the company said.
IAG confirmed that its British Airways airline faces a proposed penalty notice of £183.4m from the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) due to the theft of customer data from its website in September 2018.
Alex Cruz, British Airways chairman and chief executive, said he was "surprised and disappointed" at the ICO's initial findings with regard to the incident.