London pre-open: FTSE set to edge lower in early trading

15th Jan 2013 07:29

City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open down 7 points from yesterday's close of 6,108, tracking weakness in Asia overnight.Meanwhile, yesterday evening saw President Barack Obama refuse to negotiate with Republicans over raising the debt ceiling and declining to trade cuts in government spending in exchange for increasing the borrowing limit, according to various reports. Republican leaders continued to stress that the debt limit should be accompanied by spending cuts. "If the goal is to make sure that we are being responsible about our debt and our deficit - if that's the conversation we're having, I'm happy to have that conversation," Obama said. US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave little in the way of direction in his Q&A session last night, leaving US stocks largely unchanged, although he did argue in favour of raising the federal government's debt ceiling. The UK house price balance rose to 0 in December, versus a reading of -9 for the previous month, according to the latest data released on Tuesday morning by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).The ONS publishes consumer and producer price data for December at 9.30. In today's UK company news, Burberry's retail operation enjoyed a strong run up to Christmas, but the company took a hit in its wholesale division and said the global environment would remain challenging. The luxury fashion brand said total revenue rose 9.0% to £613m in the three months to December 31st.Bikes and car accessories retailer Halfords reported a solid increase in total revenue after a strong performance at its Autocentres and said there has been no material change in its financial position. Total revenue increased 1.6% for the 15 weeks to January 11th 2013, while revenue rose 0.8% for the 41 weeks to January 11th.Resources giant Anglo American has launched a restructuring and cost savings programme for its South African platinum operations as it emerged that the division would record a big loss for 2012 after being hit by strikes and falling prices.Imagination Technologies Group, the FTSE 250 multimedia, communications and embedded processor technology company, said Tuesday that it has signed a further license agreement with semiconductor firm MediaTek for wireless communications and digital multimedia solutions. Imagination will receive licence fees, as well as royalty revenues on shipment of devices incorporating its intellectual property.Worth taking into account as well, analysts at JP Morgan have raised their price targets for all the main High Street banks.