London pre-open: Stocks seen up after US Senate passes debt ceiling bill

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to rise at the open on Friday after the US Senate passed a bi-partisan agreement to raise the debt ceiling, and as investors eyed the latest non-farm payrolls report. The FTSE 100 was called to open 22 points higher at 7,512 as investors breathed a sigh of relief that the US will avert a debt default.

The payrolls report for May is due at 1330 BST, along with the unemployment rate and average earnings.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, said: "Today, the official jobs data is expected to print 180K new non-farm job additions, a slightly moderating wages growth, and a slight uptick in unemployment from 3.4% to 3.5%.

"But over the past year, the NFP prints tended to surprise to the upside, and by big chunks at some months. The last time the US printed a NFP figure below 200K was back in October 2021. And over the past year, the yearly NFP average was around 327K.

"Therefore, yes, seeing a softer NFP figure, falling wages growth and higher unemployment ideally with a higher participation rate is what the Federal Reserve (Fed) needs to pause hiking. But the loosening in the US jobs market hasn't materialised just yet."

In corporate news, Dechra Pharmaceuticals said it has agreed to be bought by Swedish investment firm EQT in a £4.5bn deal.

Under the terms of the transaction, Dechra shareholders will receive 3,875p in cash per share.

Elsewhere, budget airline Wizz Air reported a sharp rise in passenger numbers in May as the recovery in travel after Covid pandemic restrictions continued.

The Hungary-based airline carried 5,026,575 passengers, up 22.1% year on year, at a load factor of 90.2%compared with 84.2% in May 2022.