London pre-open: Stocks seen lower on weak Asian cues

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to fall at the open on Monday following a mostly lower Asian session. The FTSE 100 was called to open 14 points lower at 7,900.

CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "While markets in Europe have managed to continue to creep their way higher, markets in the US have struggled to go anywhere, with the S&P500 and Nasdaq 100 struggling to make any further progress towards new highs for the year, finishing the week slightly lower over concerns that the recent recovery is on somewhat shakier foundations.

"Having seen off largely better-than-expected numbers from the US banks last week, it's now the turn of big tech which has driven most of the US market rebound so far this year.

"With the likes of Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta Platforms, and Amazon all set to report this week, the outperformance that we've seen in the Nasdaq 100 so far this year is likely to face a key test, against a backdrop of the sharp rise in US 2-year yields which saw a 5-week high of 4.28% last week."

In UK corporate news, Supermarket Income REIT said it had bought a Tesco omnichannel supermarket in Worcester for £38.3m.

Tesco has been operating at the 6.5 acre site for over 30 years, the company said. The site is made up of supermarket, a petrol station and large car park.

It is also an online hub for Tesco operating nine home delivery vans and a Click & Collect facility. The store is being acquired from British Steel Pension Fund, with an unexpired lease term of 12 years, with annual upwards only RPI-linked rent reviews (subject to a 4.0% cap and 0.0% floor).