London pre-open: Stocks set for slightly higher start amid earnings deluge

(Sharecast News) - London's top-flight index was being called to start the session slightly higher as investors digested a raft of corporate earnings announcements. As of 0709 BST, futures on the FTSE 100 were trading 20.0 points higher to 7,316.0.

In parallel, futures for the US Nasdaq-100 were climbing by 174.50 points to 12,912.0, as investors cheered the latest quarterly results out of Apple and Amazon.com overnight.

Investors and analysts were also getting their heads around data published the day before showing that the US economy slipped into a so-called 'technical recession' after gross domestic product shrank for a second quarter running over the three months to June.

"With that in mind markets have started to price out the prospect of more aggressive action by central banks when it comes to raising rates, pushing yields lower and giving a boost to equity markets," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.

"In that context we can expect to see a higher European open, as German 2-year yields hit two month lows."

In the background, well received quarterly results out of US technology giants Amazon and Apple were buoying sentiment.

Shares of the former ran up by nearly 14% in after-hours trading overnight in New York.

On the economic calendar for Friday, at 0930 BST the Bank of England was scheduled to release consumer credit and mortgage lending figures for the month of June.

Across the Channel meanwhile, at 1000 BST, preliminary figures from Eurostat were expected to reveal a slight increase in the annual rate of euro area consumer price inflation from 8.6% for June to 8.7% in July.

Another report from Eurostat at that same hour was expected to show that the rate of gross domestic product growth in the single currency bloc slowed from a 0.6% quarter-on-quarter pace over the first three months of 2022 to only 0.1% in the three months to June.

And in the US, a slew of inflation indicators were due out, including the second quarter employment cost index and price deflators for personal consumption expenditures in June, both at 1330 BST.

Courtesy of the University of Michigan, gauges of consumers' inflation expectations for the month of July would follow at 1500 BST.

AstraZeneca reports solid first half trading

Drugmaker AstraZeneca raised full-year revenue guidance on Friday as it provided details of its "strong" first trading half and announced that Michel Demaré would take over as the group's chairman in April 2023. Astra-Zeneca, which reported a 48% increase in interim revenues to $22.16bn, said total revenues were now expected to increase by "a low twenties percentage", up from previous estimates in the "high teens".

NatWest beat analysts' estimates for both operating pre-tax proit and total income for its second quarter. The lender posted pretax profits of £1.4bn on £3.21bn of revenues while net profit came in at £1.05bn. Net interest margins meanwhile improved by 26 basis points against the prior quarter to 2.72%. A dividend payout of 3.5p per share was declared for the quarter.

IAG returned to profit in the second quarter as its Iberia and Vueling airlines were boosted by post-Covid pandemic demand. The company on Friday said operating profits for the three months to June 30 came in at €293m, compared with a loss of €967m a year earlier. IAG, which also owns British Airways, posted an operating loss for the half year of €438m, significantly lower than 2021's €2.03bn.