London pre-open: Stocks seen higher ahead of data, policy meetings

6th Feb 2014 07:22

Stocks are expected to open with decent gains on Thursday morning as investors take an optimistic approach ahead of what is set to be a busy day for financial markets. City sources predict that London's benchmark FTSE 100 index will open around 30 points higher yesterday's close of 6,457.89. There will be a host of economic data due out today, including: new car registrations and the Halifax house-price index in the UK; German factory orders; and jobless claims and the trade balance in the States.However, policy decisions at the Bank of England (BoE) and European Central Bank (ECB) this afternoon are likely to garner the most attention. While the BoE is widely expected to keep policy unchanged, the latter will be closely watched given last month's surprise dip in inflation in the Eurozone."The main event is the ECB meeting, where we expect a refi rate cut to 0.1%," said analysts at Danske Bank this morning. The rate was reduced to the current record-low rate of 0.25% in November."During January we have seen low inflation and declining inflation expectations combined with higher short-term money market rates - two scenarios ECB's Draghi said would lead to policy action," they said.Investors will also be looking ahead to the US Labor Department's all-important non-farm payrolls data due out tomorrow which is expected to show the number of people hired in January rose to 184,000 from just 74,000 in December.Stocks to watchCatering giant Compass has kept its expectations for the full-year organic results unchanged after a "good" first quarter but warned that adverse currency movements may dampen statutory numbers. Nevertheless, the new fiscal year, which began on September 30th, started well with organic revenues 4% ahead of the previous year at constant currency.TUI Travel said it trimmed first-quarter underlying operating losses and is confident of delivering full-year underlying operating profit growth of up to 10%. Underlying operating loss for the three months ended December 31st reduced to £108m from £116m the same time a year earlier. Revenue for the period was flat at £2.7bn.AstraZeneca's 2013 annual revenue fell 6% to $25.7bn as the drug maker was hurt by competition from generic brands. The company lost exclusive rights on products including Seroquel IR, Atacand, Nexium and Merrem as regulators allowed rival generic brands onto the market.BC