London pre-open: Stocks to edge down; US tech results in focus

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to nudge lower at the open on Thursday following uninspiring US and Asian sessions, as US corporate results left investors unimpressed. The FTSE 100 was called to open down around five points at 7,894.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, said: "For now, the big tech results of the week have not been convincing. Netflix dropped more than 3% yesterday as its subscription growth missed analyst estimates, while Tesla shed 6% in the afterhours trading as... yes, the price cuts that kicked off a price war in the EV sector did weigh on Tesla's profitability last quarter.

"Although the earnings came in slightly lower than expected, at 85 cents versus 86 cents expected by analysts, the gross profit margins fell more than 20% compared to Q4 of last year. The 20+% fall in profit margins revived the worries that Tesla, which announced six price cuts this year, the last being just a few hours before the latest quarterly results came in, may not increase profitability easily in the coming quarters. And Elon Musk is not ready to stop the price war just yet. He said that Tesla will continue cutting prices despite the falling profit margins."

In UK corporate news, Rio Tinto reported record first-quarter iron ore shipments from its Plibara operations in Western Australia as China ramped up steel production, but cut copper output guidance due to issues at its US Kennecott and Chilean Escondida operations.

Iron ore shipments rose 16% to 82.5 million tonnes of the steel-making material, beating a prior first-quarter record of 80.3 million tonnes set in 2018.

However, copper production was downgraded after snowfall and a broken conveyor belt at Kennecott led to a 36% fall in output. Rio said this would impact operations until the third quarter and lowered its mined copper guidance for 2023 to 590,000 - 640,000 tonnes, from 650,000 - 710,000 thousand tonnes.

Elsewhere, homeware retailer Dunelm backed its pre-tax profit expectations for the full year as it posted a 6% jump in third-quarter sales.

"We performed well during Q3, with strong trading throughout the period, including a successful Winter Sale, and good demand for our new collections for spring and summer," it said.

"Whilst the consumer outlook remains unpredictable, we remain focussed on strengthening our customer offer to provide unbeatable choice and value for every space, style and budget."