London pre-open: Stocks seen down after Wall St losses; manufacturing PMIs eyed

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set for more losses on Friday following another negative session on Wall Street on the back of recession fears. The FTSE 100 was called to open down 24 points at 7,145, with investors eyeing June manufacturing PMIs for the UK and eurozone.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, said: "The pain may not be over, as the Fed is expected to remain as aggressive as needed until it sees a material and a persistent softening in inflation. The problem is, inflation doesn't necessarily come from the demand side, meaning that even with an aggressive policy tightening, the Fed may not achieve its goal soon enough.

"So, what will happen now? Nothing new. Inflation will remain the major driving factor of the markets in the second half, and the overall market sentiment will hugely depend on inflation numbers."

In corporate news, Chemring said the UK's Serious Fraud Office had closed its investigation into the activities of its Chemring Technology Solutions subsidiary and associated persons.

Chemring stated it had "co-operated fully" with the SFO throughout the investigation, which was initially launched back in January 2018, and said it was "pleased" that the matter was now closed.

Oxford Biomedica has signed a new three-year deal which would facilitate potential future manufacturing opportunities for the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.

This represents an expansion of the original master supply and development agreement announced between the two companies in September 2020. Under the new deal, manufacturing of vaccines at Oxford manufacturing facility, Oxbox, will be available to AstraZeneca on an as-needed basis beyond 2022.