London pre-open: FTSE to open largely unchanged ahead of US data

22nd Oct 2013 07:44

City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open around two points lower than yesterday's close of 6,654.20, following a similar pattern in the US as investors tread water ahead of some key economic data out from the US. As a backlog of US data begins to unwind following the government shutdown, all eyes will be on delayed release of the September jobs report. However, the fact that the data is now two weeks old means that it will likely carry less weight than usual. Nevertheless, consensus forecasts are pointing to a 180,000 increase in US non-farm payrolls last month, higher than the 169,000 gain seen in August, while the unemployment rate is expected to have remained unchanged at 7.3%.Yesterday, the FTSE 100 hit a two-and-a-half-month high as markets managed to offset some heavy falls from heavyweight bank RBS.The UK lender dropped nearly 5% on Monday after Chancellor George Osborne was quoted as saying that a decision over a 'good bank-bad bank' split will come within a few weeks.In today's UK company news, engineering business GKN said that, as expected, the third quarter saw a strong performance in Commercial Aerospace, while Military Aerospace and Spares showed a continuation of the weaker demand evidenced in the first half. Group sales totalled £1,865m, a 16% increase over the comparable period in 2012, including 6% organic growth, while profit for the quarter came in at £131m, up 34%. The third-quarter trading profit increased to £152m (2012: £113m), with a trading margin of 8.2% (2012: 7.0%). Whitbread's interim earnings rose ahead of expectations as its Premier Inns hotels and Costa coffee shops continued to grab market share. Despite strong competition in the hotel market, with increasingly strong performance from rivals Travelodge and Accor/Ibis, Premier Inn opened 12 new hotels and contributed a 12.2% increase in total sales.Household products firm Reckitt Benckiser has raised its full-year revenue guidance slightly after a strong third quarter and a decent performance by recent acquisitions. The maker of Harpic and Finish dishwasher tablets said it now expects to grow net revenue excluding Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals (RBP) by "at least 6%" in 2013, compared with the previous forecast of the "upper end of the +5-6% range".In other news, British business collapses fell for the fifth month in a row in September, figures out today showed. The number of companies going insolvent dropped to 1,609, or 0.07%, last month from 1,679, or 0.08%, in September a year ago, the latest Business Insolvency Index from credit checking firm Experian showed.NR