London open: Stocks nudge down ahead of US PCE; NatWest tumbles

(Sharecast News) - London stocks nudged lower in early trade on Friday as investors eyed the release of a key US inflation reading, with NatWest under the cosh after results. At 0900 BST, the FTSE 100 was down 0.1% at 7,344.42.

Investors were also mulling strong results from Amazon overnight, which showed that third-quarter net income jumped to $9.9bn from $2.9bn in the same period a year earlier, while net sales rose 13% to $143.1bn.

Looking ahead to the rest of the day, attention will turn to US personal consumption expenditure figures - the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation - at 1330 BST.

CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "Today's September numbers are expected to show a further slowdown to 3.7% for PCE core deflator while personal spending is forecast to remain steady at 0.4%."

In equity markets, NatWest tumbled after third-quarter results.

Matt Britzman, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said the results were "largely disappointing" as net interest margin dipped below 3%, and the outlook was lowered.

He noted that deposit levels grew, which is a positive sign that NatWest is pricing itself at the right levels to attract customers searching for higher rates. However, he also pointed out that it's a less profitable business than non/low-interest current accounts.

"Add in mortgage headwinds as highly profitable business written over the pandemic rolls off, and that's caused the hit to net interest margin," he said.

Lloyds, Barclays and Standard Chartered - which took a hammering of its own on Thursday after its third-quarter results - were all down.

British Airways and Iberia owner IAG was also in the red despite posting a record third-quarter profit of €1.75bn, driven by strong demand.

On the upside, Digital 9 Infrastructure surged after saying that it was assessing a potential divestment of its entire stake in the Verne Global group of companies for an undisclosed sum.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,344.42 -0.14% FTSE 250 (MCX) 16,789.34 0.04% techMARK (TASX) 3,968.78 0.14%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Smurfit Kappa Group (CDI) (SKG) 2,646.00p 1.30% Fresnillo (FRES) 540.60p 1.27% Shell (SHEL) 2,721.50p 1.23% Vodafone Group (VOD) 75.58p 1.03% BP (BP.) 539.20p 1.01% Croda International (CRDA) 4,257.00p 0.95% Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,364.50p 0.92% Endeavour Mining (EDV) 1,667.00p 0.91% Rio Tinto (RIO) 5,190.00p 0.87% B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 530.40p 0.84%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

NATWEST GROUP (NWG) 180.35p -12.37% CRH (CDI) (CRH) 4,276.00p -3.65% International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 138.65p -2.94% Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 39.97p -2.90% Barclays (BARC) 129.64p -1.97% Rentokil Initial (RTO) 399.00p -1.82% Ocado Group (OCDO) 479.80p -1.50% Standard Chartered (STAN) 616.60p -1.38% Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 197.75p -1.37% British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,425.00p -1.34%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Digital 9 Infrastructure NPV (DGI9) 40.00p 9.59% Centamin (DI) (CEY) 82.40p 5.44% Trainline (TRN) 242.80p 5.02% Mobico Group (MCG) 60.50p 2.11% Bakkavor Group (BAKK) 87.60p 2.10% Energean (ENOG) 824.50p 2.04% Keller Group (KLR) 756.00p 1.89% Harbour Energy (HBR) 254.50p 1.68% Essentra (ESNT) 146.00p 1.67% Premier Foods (PFD) 116.60p 1.57%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

CAB Payments Holdings (CABP) 50.55p -2.79% easyJet (EZJ) 357.00p -2.75% Jupiter Fund Management (JUP) 72.10p -2.24% Bytes Technology Group (BYIT) 470.00p -2.21% Virgin Money UK (VMUK) 146.35p -2.17% Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 1,536.00p -2.17% BlackRock Greater Europe Inv Trust (BRGE) 458.50p -1.93% C&C Group (CDI) (CCR) 132.00p -1.79% Currys (CURY) 43.22p -1.77% Future (FUTR) 820.00p -1.44%