London pre-open: Prepare for small loss

15th Sep 2010 07:39

London is seen starting down 5 points at the start of play following last night's late dip on Wall Street.The Dow Jones ended Tuesday's session down 17 points despite better than expected retail sales data.Over here, Next did pretty much as expected in the six months to July given that the clothes retailer's last update was only a month ago, but the high street remains a "testing" place and higher cotton prices could crimp demand. Profit before tax increased 15% to £213.3m from £185.5m a year ago on revenue up 5% to £1.59bn. Like for like sales fell 1.5%, as previously flagged.Full-year profit forecasts remain unchanged, but shoppers may find their fashion costs more in the spring. Cotton prices are up 45% on last year and VAT goes up soon, which Next reckons will force stores to raise prices by 5-8%. It thinks the cotton price rises are likely to moderate demand "to some extent", but believes the effect is "unlikely to be dramatic". The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has extended the review timelines for AstraZeneca's new drug application for blood thinner ticagrelor, which the Anglo-Swedish drugs giant intends to market under the name Brilinta. The Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) date has been revised from 16 September 2010 to 16 December 2010. There has been a fire at one of Chemring's specialist assembly facilities in Tennessee, USA. The defence company, which specialises in energetic materials, such as pyrotechnic, pyrophoric, propellant and explosive materials, said the facility affected is one that is used to perform the final assembly of the MJU-7 flare.Gem Diamonds has negotiated a 25% price rise for rare yellow diamonds produced at its Ellendale mine in Australia with Laurelton Diamonds, the diamond sourcing and polishing subsidiary of jeweller, Tiffany & Co. The price increase will come into effect on 1 October 2010. Kimberley Diamond is the Gem subsidiary that runs Ellendale.Carr's Milling's full year results will be ahead of market expectations as booming sales of fertiliser outweighed problems caused by the soaring price of wheat. "The final quarter of the financial year saw a strong trading performance by the group which expects results for the full year to be ahead of market expectations," Carr's said.