London pre-open: Stocks set for positive start

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to rise at the open on Tuesday following a mostly positive Asian session. The FTSE 100 was called to open 25 points higher at 7,258.

Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Ava Trade, said: "As most traders return from the July Fourth holiday, European and US futures are trading higher today. There is also a lot of optimism among traders that the Biden administration could be rolling back some of the tariffs imposed on China during the Trump era to ease inflation.

"Higher inflation has created a significant threat to the US economy, and there are higher chances of the US economy falling into a recession. Investors believe that if President Biden rolls back some of the Trump administration tariffs on China, it will positively impact inflation, meaning we could see inflation numbers falling but not significantly.

"Two important economic events are taking place this week, and traders are highly likely to focus on them. First, we will get the Fed Minutes which will give us more clarity about the Fed's think behind their current hawkish monetary policy. Secondly, and more importantly, the US non-farm payrolls data will be coming out on Friday."

In corporate news, supermarket chain Sainsbury's said first-quarter sales fell 2.4% against last year's elevated Covid-19 driven levels and 8.7% ahead of pre-pandemic levels.

Group sales, excluding fuel for the 16 weeks to June 25 fell 4.5%, but were 5.4% higher than pre-pandemic levels. Sainsbury's maintained guidance for annual underlying profit before tax of between £630m and £690m.

Drugmaker AstraZeneca has agreed to acquire TeneoTwo and its clinical-stage T-cell engager in a deal worth up to $1.26bn as part of an effort to accelerate the development of the potential new medicine for B-cell haematologic malignancies.

AstraZeneca will pay $100.0m for TeneoTwo and its TNB-486 T-cell engager, while additional contingent research and development-related milestone payments of up to $805.0m and further commercial-related milestone payments of up to $360.0m will also be due to TeneoTwo's equity holders.