The market is expected to be bullish in early trade with the FTSE 100 projected to climb as much as 1% after yesterday’s low finish on the back of the quarterly report from Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), which offered an upbeat outlook, but posted a 5% decline in profits. The better than expected quarterly figures from chipmaker Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), which came out after New York closed yesterday, are expected to offset the negative impact from J&J’s results and the losses in the banking sector following yesterday’s downgrade of Goldman Sachs by Meredith Whitney.
Oil, precious and base metals prices all rose, which is expected to boost miners and oil & gas stocks.
In the US, the Dow Jones industrial average trimmed its losses to just 0.15%, while S&P 500 declined 0.25%, but the Nasdaq composite index rose marginally.
Oil continued its climb with November Brent Crude reaching US$73.27/barrel, while US light, sweet crude reached the US$75/barrel mark.
Precious metals also improved. Gold reached yet new highs, climbing to US$1,070/oz, while Silver eclipsed US$18/oz. Platinum rose to US$1,359/oz.
Base metals recouped some of their recent losses as Copper rose to US$2.82/pound and Nickel moved up to US$8.34/pound. Zinc returned to US$0.93/pound.
JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) is scheduled to announce its Q3 results today as well as pharmaceutical company Abbot Laboratories (NYSE: ABT). Investors are also expecting the UK jobless report and US September retail sales update which are set to come out today.
Morning news wrap
In the FTSE 100, silver miner Fresnillo (LSE: FRES) reported a 9.3% increase in quarterly silver production to a new record level of 9.7 million ounces and said it was on track to achieve full year production target of 40.1 million ounces.
Power generation company International Power (LSE: IPR) sold its 50% interest in 318MW Hartwell Plant to Oglethorpe Power Corporation for US$148.5 million.
Fashion house Burberry (LSE: BRBY) said retail revenue increased 14% in the first half, while wholesale revenue declined 23%, which was in line with previously given guidance.
Information services company Experian Group (LSE: EXPN) reported a 1% increase in revenue in the first half, which was in line with expectations.