Stocks in London were in the red during midday trade on Friday, with investors fixed on this afternoon’s US nonfarm payrolls data.
The FTSE 100 index was down 30.44 points, or 0.4%, at 8,211.04. The FTSE 250 was down 136.32 points, or 0.7%, at 20,626.66, and the AIM All-Share was down 11.51 points, or 1.5%, at 747.61.
The Cboe UK 100 was down 0.5% at 821.21, the Cboe UK 250 was down 0.8% at 18,167.12, and the Cboe Small Companies was down 0.1% at 16,875.53.
‘Today’s release of new US jobs data could have a significant influence on the direction of shares around the world. Concerns about economic weakness in the US have already led to two big shockwaves on the stock market in the past few months, and there is a potential for more tremors if the data looks bleak,’ said AJ Bell’s Russ Mould.
‘The Federal Reserve looks hard at employment trends when it decides on interest rates and jobs data is also important to the US presidential campaign. The Democrats have been bigging up a resilient economy and Kamala Harris won’t want to see a big slowdown in the country, as that could fuel Donald Trump‘s criticisms of his election rival.’
The US nonfarm payrolls print and unemployment rate are released at 13.30 BST.
Closer to home, UK house prices jumped 4.3% year-on-year in August, accelerating from 2.4% growth in July and the strongest rate since November 2022. July’s annual growth was upwardly revised from a previously reported 2.3%.
On a monthly basis, UK house price growth decelerated to 0.3% in August from 0.9% in July, the earlier month’s growth upwardly revised from a previously reported 0.8%. August’s growth was higher than consensus of 0.2%.
In European equities on Friday, the CAC 40 in Paris was down 0.2%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was down 0.4%.
According to Eurostat, the eurozone economy grew by 0.2% in the second quarter from the first - a downward revision from the previous estimate of 0.3%. It also marked a slowdown from the quarterly growth of 0.3% seen in the first quarter of 2024.
Annually, gross domestic product increased 0.6%, unchanged from the prior estimate. It had grown 0.5% annually in the first quarter.
Separate data showed that German industrial production fell more than expected in July, as the country’s flagship auto industry registered a sharp drop.
Output declined 2.4% month-on-month, according to the Federal Statistics Office, after a revised increase of 1.7% in June. Analysts surveyed by the financial data firm FactSet had expected a more modest drop in output of 0.5% in July.
Production declined in ‘most sectors’, Destatis said, but an 8.1% fall in the automotive industry had a ‘particularly negative impact’. The move wiped out a 7.9% increase in production in the sector in June.
The pound was quoted at $1.3174 at midday on Friday in London, up compared to $1.3160 at the equities close on Thursday. The euro stood at $1.1109, against $1.1082. Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JP¥142.83, down compared to JP¥143.94.
In the FTSE 100, Berkeley Group was down 1.6%.
The home construction company noted a ‘stable’ start to the year, and said it remains on track to achieve pre-tax earnings guidance for the full year of £525 million. Berkeley’s financial year ends on April 30. Sales contracts have helped to secure 90% of these earnings already, the firm added.
Pre-tax profit for the year are expected to be weighted towards the first half, similarly to last year, and operating margin will therefore ‘be slightly ahead of [Berkeley’s] long-term range’, at between 17.5% to 19.5%.
In the FTSE 250, PureTech Health was down 1.8%.
Vor Bio, its clinical stage cell and genome engineering company, has received new clinical data from its ongoing Phase 1/2 VBP101 study.
The study looks at patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukaemia receiving trem-cel followed by Mylotarg. Recent data demonstrated reliable engraftment, shielding from Mylotarg on-target toxicity, a broadened Mylotarg therapeutic window, and early evidence of patient benefit.
Next 15 shed 49%.
The public relations agencies company said that a contract with Mach49’s largest customer has not been renewed after its initial three-year term and will now end this year. This contract had been expected to contribute just over £80 million of revenue in financial 2026, which means forecasts for that year will need to be adjusted.
Additionally, the group has continued to see ‘an ongoing weakness in spend’ from its technology customers, as well as a reduction in revenues from its public sector clients. As a result of these factors and the contract ending which will impact the last month of the fiscal year, Next 15 now believes financial 2025 revenue will be lower than planned, and profits to be materially below management expectations.
By contrast, CEPS jumped 24%.
The Bath, England-based investment company, which is focused on the industrial sector, posted interim revenue of £15.9 million, up 5.6% from £15.1 million a year prior. Pretax profit came to £1.2 million, up from £977,000 the previous year.
The firm said it ‘remains keen’ to recommence the payment of dividends, and now needs to build its revenue reserves to enable the board to consider either buying back shares and cancelling them, or alternatively paying dividends.
Stocks in New York were called lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was called down 0.3%, the S&P 500 index down 0.6%, and the Nasdaq Composite down 1.1%.
Republican White House candidate Donald Trump unveiled a plan Thursday to install tech billionaire Elon Musk at the head of a government efficiency commission to eliminate ‘trillions’ of dollars in wasteful spending.
Trump told business executives at a speech in New York that Musk – the world’s richest man, according to Forbes – would oversee a ‘complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government’ in a second Trump administration.
‘As the first order of business, this commission will develop an action plan to totally eliminate fraud and improper payments within six months. This will save trillions of dollars,’ he said.
Trump – whose administration oversaw an $8.2 trillion rise in the national debt, almost twice as much as President Joe Biden’s – has not publicly identified any of the savings and experts are sceptical about the size of the savings.
Brent oil was quoted at $72.67 a barrel at midday in London on Friday from $73.01 late Thursday.
Gold was quoted at $2,517.60 an ounce against $2,505.80.
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