Today's top story: Lloyds AGM: Noel Edmonds crashes the bank's house party
Today's leader: Sainsbury's must tread carefully or become a political punchbag
European stock markets are expected to shrug off US President Donald Trumps surprise cancellation of a summit with North Korea.
The FTSE 100 is called 49 points higher at 7,765 by analysts from LCG. Germanys Dax is seen 67 points up at 12,922 and Frances Cac is projected to start the day 32 points higher at 5,580.
Asian stock markets initially got the Trump hump as they opened overnight. But after South Korean markets slipped almost one per cent in early trading, shares pared back all their losses.
The MSCI Asia-Pacific excluding Japan was also flat while Japanese stocks nosed 0.1 per cent higher.
But Trumps move was put into perspective by some analysts, which said it was not automatically a sign of an escalation of hostilities between the US and North Korea.
“I suspect they couldnt agree on de-nuclearisation. But looking at comments from the both sides, none of them is ruling out holding a meeting in the future. So I do not expect to see an immediate escalation in military tension,” said senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management Masahiro Ichikawa.
Meanwhile, Yukino Yamada, a senior strategist at Daiwa Securities said a rise in US bond yields was more concerning to Asian traders than Trumps cancellation.
Ten-year US treasury bonds hit a seven-year high last week. Rising US yields hit emerging economies as traders, sensing a better yield at what is perceived to be a safer asset class, move their money into US government debt.
Corporate news
- Homebase – has been sold for £1 by its Australian owners
- Samsonite – shares plunge for a second day following short-seller report
- Apple – blocks Stream's plans to extend video games to iPhones
- Pfizer – pays $24m to settle a US kickback probe
Data
- 09:30 – UK GDP figures (first quarter)
- 14:20 – Speech by US fed member Powell
- 14:20 – Bank of England governor Mark Carney to speak
- 15:45 – Speeches by US fed members Kaplan and Bostic
