London pre-open: Stocks seen up but volumes set to be quiet amid US holiday

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to gain at the open on Monday following a mostly positive session in Asia, but volumes were expected to be thin with US markets closed for the 4th July holiday. The FTSE 100 was called to open 60 points higher at 7,229.

Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Ava Trade, said: "The most important event of this week for traders and investors will be taking place towards the end of this week which is the US NFP data. Any sluggish NFP reading is going to make the Fed even more nervous.

"Although, it is important to note here that the Fed Chairman has already warned that the Fed is willing to tolerate some pain in order to bring inflation lower. Many investors believe that the interest rate in the US could reach 2.5% to 3% by the end of this year, and that could be the cut-off point for the Fed i.e., when the Fed will stop increasing the interest rate. However, it is important to note that the last time the Fed increased the interest to this level of 3%, inflation was running around 4.3%, and now US inflation readings are at 8%, which means that the chances of the Fed backing off from hiking interest rate are remote.

"We will get more information about the Fed's thinking and their mentality this week as we do have the FOMC Minutes scheduled on the economic docket for this week and they will be out on Wednesday at 18:00 PM GMT."

In corporate news, low-cost carrier Wizz Air almost trebled passenger numbers last month as more people resumed travelling as Covid restrictions eased.

The company said it carried 4,340,115 passengers, a 179% increase year on year, at a load factor of 86.1%, up 22.1 percentage points.

Wizz also announced it will be returning to a systemic jet fuel hedge policy "given the sustained and ongoing volatility in commodity prices".

Builders merchants Grafton revealed that chief executive Gavin Slark has opted to step down as chief executive officer after 11 years in the role.

Grafton said Slark will continue in his roles as CEO and board director until moving on from both on 31 December, in line with his service agreement.