London pre-open: Stocks to fall as Greek hopes fade, US jobs data ahead

2nd Jul 2015 07:57

UK stocks are expected to slip in early trading on Thursday after the Greek government confirmed it would be pushing ahead with a referendum on Sunday, dashing hopes of an imminent debt deal with creditors.Investors were also likely to tread cautiously ahead of the all-important US employment report.City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open 25 points lower than Wednesday's close of 6,608.59.After showing signs of conceding ground on Wednesday and offering to meet most of the demands from last week's funding proposal, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said the planned 5 July vote on a new bailout would still go ahead and reiterated his call on the public to vote 'no'."Yesterday was a spectacular day for Alex Tsipras's political flip flopping, in the morning appearing to have yielded to most of Greece's creditors demands, only to turn around later and tell his people to tell the very same creditors to get stuffed and vote no in Sunday's referendum," said dealer Jonathan Sudaria from London Capital Group.European leaders have now broken off talks about a new deal and said they would not hold more discussions until after the referendum."The line appears to be that the creditors are happy to talk, either after the referendum, or straightaway if the referendum is called off," said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.Looking ahead, the non-farm payrolls figure for June - scheduled one day earlier than normal due to national holidays Stateside on Friday for the weekend's Fourth of July celebrations - will be released at 13:30, along with a barrage of other labour-market data such as the unemployment rate, average hourly earnings, and weekly jobless claims.Analysts expect the Labor Department to report that 230,000 payrolls were added in the US economy last month, down sharply from the forecast-beating 280,000 that were registered for May, the highest since December 2014. The unemployment rate is estimated to tick down further to 5.4% from 5.5%.Stocks to watchHousebuilder Persimmon said first-half revenues increased by 12% thanks to higher selling prices and higher volumes of new home sales, aided by an increasingly competitive mortgage market. Volumes increased 7% thanks to improved confidence post-general election and the average selling price for the group increased by 4% to roughly £195,000.Dixons Carphone said that its Connected World Services (CWS) division has entered into an agreement with Sprint Corp to open and manage a significant number of Sprint-branded stores in the US.Chemicals company Synthomer said it expected a lower operating profit in its Europe and North American division this quarter due to weak demand and increased prices for raw materials.Halfords has appointed a new chief financial officer to replace current finance head Andrew Findlay who was poached by Easyjet in April. Jonny Mason, who currently stands as CFO of chicken processor Scandi Standard, will join the UK bike and car parts retailer from 12 October.