LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London are set to edge higher on Thursday, with focus on the latest monetary policy decision from the European Central Bank, amid a jam-packed day for company earnings.
Headlining the UK corporate calendar on Thursday are full-year results from distiller Diageo and pay-TV company Sky.
There are also half-year results from oil major Royal Dutch Shell, Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca, tobacco firm British American Tobacco, asset manager Schroders, medical devices maker Smith & Nephew and information and analytics group RELX, among others.
Focus in the economic calendar, meanwhile, lies on the ECB's latest policy announcement at 1245 BST with a press conference with President Mario Draghi at 1330 BST.
"Whilst the economic data broadly support the ECB's optimistic tone on the economy, we expect there to be questions on the timing of the first rate hike, given the confused interpretations of what the latest rate guidance actually means," said analysts at Societe Generale.
IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 index of large-caps to open marginally higher at 7,662.10 on Thursday. The FTSE 100 index closed down 0.7%, or 50.79 points at 7,658.26 on Wednesday.
Sentiment improved overnight after the US and the EU agreed on Wednesday to ease trade tensions while continuing to negotiate the details of a far-reaching agreement that would slash tariffs and other barriers to trade.
US President Donald Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker announced the outlines of the deal after a White House meeting.
Trump said the two sides would "work together toward zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers and zero subsidies on non-auto industrial goods."
"There was no mention of removing the existing retaliatory tariffs imposed in the last few months, and while the pledges to work towards zero tariffs is certainly a noble goal, it is likely to face significant obstacles from some national governments in Europe, which means it's unlikely to ever happen. To get an idea of the obstacles you only need to look at the failure of TTIP," said CMC Markets chief market analyst Michael Hewson.
Hewson added: "On the plus side the prospect of 25% tariffs on European cars has receded for now, along with EU retaliation, which probably helps explain the positive market reaction."
Stocks in the US on Wednesday ended higher on the US-EU agreement, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining 0.7%, the S&P 500 up 0.9% and Nasdaq Composite closing 1.2% higher.
Social media network Facebook, having gained 1.3% on Wednesday prior to the release of its second quarter results, slumped 20% in after-hours trading as it reported a 31% jump in the profit for the second quarter but revenue and monthly active users fell short of Wall Street expectations.
California-based Facebook's second-quarter profit rose to USD5.11 billion, or USD1.74 per share, from USD3.89 billion, or USD1.32 per share, last year.
Revenue for the quarter surged 42% to USD13.23 billion, but analysts had expected this to come in at USD13.36 billion. Monthly active users rose 11% to 2.23 billion, while economists had anticipated this figure at 2.25 billion.
In Asia on Thursday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index is down 0.2%. In China, the Shanghai Composite is down 0.8%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 0.7%.
Released early Thursday, producer prices in Japan accelerated to rise 1.2% on an annualised basis in June.
This followed two months of prices rising at 1.0%. On a monthly basis, the Bank of Japan said, producer prices added 0.2% after easing 0.1% in May.
