London pre-open: Stocks to nudge up ahead of US GDP data
London stocks were set to nudge a little higher at the open on Friday as investors eyed the release of US second-quarter GDP data.
The FTSE 100 was called to open five points higher at 7,494.
CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "Today’s first iteration of US Q2 GDP number could well introduce further doubt into market expectations of what sort of messaging that we might get from the Federal Reserve next week.
"While there is no expectation that we won’t get a weaker number than the 3.1% seen in Q1, there is a chance we could see an upside surprise.
"Early estimates are for a number between 1% and 2%, with recent revisions suggesting something nearer to 2%. Any number above 2% would inevitably raises questions as to why it’s even necessary to consider a rate cut, but given weaknesses elsewhere in the global economy, it would still be a big surprise were the Fed not to go next week.”
In UK corporate news, first quarter group revenue at Vodafone fell 2.3% to €10.7bn (£9.59bn) due to foreign exchange rate effects, the company said on Friday as it remained confident of full year adjusted EBITDA guidance of €13.8bn - €14.2bn.
The company added that it was creating Europe's largest mobile phone tower company with its infrastructure to be legally separated into a new organisation operational by May 2020 made up of 61,700 towers in 10 markets with potential proportionate EBITDA of around €900m.
Elsewhere, Pearson reported underlying growth across all divisions as the company said it was starting to benefit from accelerating its shift to a digital subscription-style service, a change in strategy that the educational textbook publisher revealed last week.
However, higher restructuring charges and a drop in sales following the disposal of non-core businesses led the company to report a drop in interim profit before tax to £33m from £202m in the same period last year.