Wetherspoon (J.D) Share News (JDW)

(Alliance News) - London stocks continued to linger in the red at midday on Wednesday as traders wait eagerly to see if the head of the US central bank reveals any clues about interest rate cuts as part of his testimony to Congress.The FTSE 100 index was bogged down another day by Micro Focus, while recruitment firms brought up the rear of the FTSE 250 after a downbeat outlook from PageGroup.Meanwhile, the pound firmed after data showed the UK economy burst back into growth in May. However, analysts question whether this will be enough to prevent a contraction in the second quarter as a whole.The large-cap index was 15.00 points lower, or 0.2%, at 7,521.48 Wednesday midday. The mid-cap index was down 42.78 points, or 0.2%, at 19,424.59, while the AIM All-Share was 0.5% higher at 913.04.The Cboe UK 100 index was down 0.2% at 12,753.01. The Cboe UK 250 was 0.3% lower at 17,341.75, while the Cboe UK Small Companies was 0.2% lower at 11,218.99.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 index in Paris and DAX 30 in Frankfurt were down 0.1% and 0.5% respectively at midday."The week so far has seen investors take a broadly cautious stance, as they wait for what Jerome Powell has to say," said Christ Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG. Beauchamp continued: "The expectations game has changed wildly since the last Fed meeting, especially since Friday's jobs report caught investors on the hop with a much better headline figure, and now a cautious cut of just 25 basis points is the expectation, with the Fed perhaps rowing back on some of its previous dovishness."Powell appears in front of Congress starting at 1500 BST. Later, at 1900 BST, minutes from the latest Federal Open Market Committee meeting are released.Ahead of Powell, equity prices in the US are pointed to a slightly lower open, with the Dow Jones, Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 all pointed down 0.1%.The dollar was softer. The pound was quoted at USD1.2483 at midday, versus USD1.2460 late Tuesday.In the UK, official data showed the economy return to growth in May but analysts remain downbeat on the country's prospects.Gross domestic product grew by 0.3% month-on-month in May, rebounding from a 0.4% monthly contraction in April. The May result matched consensus, as cited by FXStreet, for a 0.3% advance.Boosting the economy was a 1.4% rise in manufacturing, while the index of production also rose 1.4%, but the all-important services sector was flat. In April, manufacturing had tumbled 4.2% and production by 2.9% while services had gained 0.1%."Even though the data represents a decent recovery from the sizable drop in April it will still take a near miracle for the UK economy to avoid falling into contraction territory in the second quarter, with an increase of 0.8% required in the month of June alone needed to avoid this fate," said David Cheetham at ATB.Further compounding economic growth worries, the European Commission said the UK is set to be among the slowest-growing European countries this year.Business investment in the UK is likely to remain weak this year as uncertainty persists over the nature of the country's withdrawal from the EU, though "modestly" rising wages are expected to support moderate private consumption growth.The commission expects UK gross domestic product to expand 1.3% this year - the same as forecast in spring - tied for the place of fourth-from-last with France and slightly above Belgium, at 1.2%.Below Belgium is Germany, forecast to grow just 0.5%, and in last place is Italy with a meagre 0.1% advance seen. Ireland, meanwhile, is set to be one of the top performers this year with growth of 4.0%. In London, Micro Focus International weighed on the FTSE 100 as the software firm extended the previous session's losses.Micro Focus was down 7.5% at midday, adding to Tuesday's 5.3% slide after reporting a fall in interim revenue, though profit surged on the sale of its SUSE business. Keeping the FTSE 250 in the red, meanwhile, were recruitment firms. PageGroup was down 15% while Hays slipped 6.4%. PageGroup said it expects annual profit at the lower end of market expectations due to "challenging" macroeconomic conditions, though it reported a rise in gross profit for the first half.The recruitment company said its total gross profit for the first half of 2019 was GBP433.5 million, a 9.5% increase as reported and also 9.5% at constant currency.Despite this growth, 2019 operating profit is expected to be at the low end of market expectations due to a difficult economic environment, PageGroup said.Peer Hays was knocked by a negative read-across, while also suffering a downgrade from Swiss bank UBS to Neutral from Buy.Playtech was boosted to the top of the mid-caps after JPMorgan initiated the stock with an Overweight rating.Not far behind was pub operator JD Wetherspoon, gaining 2.7% after a solid trading update. Wetherspoon said its like-for-like sales were up 6.9% for the ten weeks to July 7, with total sales up 6.6% for the same period. Year-to-date, like-for-like sales were up 6.7% while total sales rose 7.4%. Since its financial year began, JD Wetherspoon has opened five new pubs and disposed of another nine, with no more openings planned for its current financial year. Chair Tim Martin said that "the company's expectation for our annual results is unchanged for the current financial year".London Midday is available to subscribers as an email newsletter. Contact info@alliancenews.com