London pre-open: Stocks to gain as US and China extend trade truce deadline

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to gain at the open on Tuesday after the US and China extended their trade truce deadline by another 90 days. The FTSE 100 was called to open around 15 points higher, as investors mulled the latest UK jobs data and eyed a key US inflation print.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, said: "Trump extended the tariff truce with China - which was set to expire today - by 90 more days, announced that gold will finally not be tariffed, and confirmed that Nvidia and AMD will pay the US government a 15% cut of their Chinese sales."

Looking ahead to the rest of the day, attention will turn to the US consumer price index for July, due at 1330 BST.

Ahmad Assiri, research strategist at Pepperstone, said the US CPI is an event that could significantly impact current trading dynamics not just for the remainder of August, but potentially for the entire quarter.

"Consensus calls for a modest uptick in headline inflation, from 2.7% to 2.8%, while core CPI - stripping out food and energy - is expected to remain sticky or edge toward the 3% mark," he said. "Such a print would underscore that underlying price pressures are persisting and may now be feeling the heat from recently come-into-effect tariffs, whose full impact has yet to filter through to consumer prices.

"Today's print will help determine just how far the Fed can advance along its monetary easing path without compromising its inflation mandate. The macro backdrop is further complicated by the extension of the US- China trade deal rather than a firm final deal."

On home shores, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that the unemployment rate held steady in the three months to June at 4.7%, which is a four-year high.

Average earnings growth excluding bonuses was unchanged at 5%, while total pay growth including bonuses was 4.6%, down from 5.0%.

The data also showed that the estimated number of vacancies fell by 44,000 on the quarter, to 718,000, in May to July 2025. This was the 37th consecutive period where vacancy numbers dropped compared with the previous three months, with vacancies falling in 16 of the 18 industry sectors.

ONS director of economic statistics Liz McKeown said: "Taken together, these latest figures point to a continued cooling of the labour market.

"The number of employees on payroll has now fallen in 10 of the last 12 months, with these falls concentrated in hospitality and retail.

"Job vacancies, likewise, have continued to fall, also driven by fewer opportunities in these industries."

In corporate news, housebuilder Bellway said total completions in the year to 31 July rose 14.3% to 8,749 homes at an overall average selling price of around £316,000, compared with £307,909 a year ago, both slightly ahead of previous guidance.

The company said it now expected to maintain "broadly flat" average outlet numbers for fiscal 2026 and forecast growth in volume output to around 9,200 homes and higher cash generation for shareholder returns.

Entain reported a better-than-expected first-half performance, with strong momentum across its UK, US, and Brazilian operations prompting an upgrade to full-year guidance.

The Ladbrokes owner said total net gaming revenues rose 7% year-on-year to £2.63bn, while underlying earnings climbed 11% to £583m.

UK and Ireland online operations led the charge with 21% growth, reflecting market share recovery and enhanced customer engagement.