Asian indices traded lower following the US bourses, energy names were the worst performers as WTI and Brent sold off yesterday. This also took the shine off the decision by US index provider MSCI to add mainland Chinese stocks to one of its popular benchmarks.
Not too much going on in the commodities markets other than the oil sell off. Spot WTI rejected $43 yesterday reaching its lowest level since Nov 2016. Copper is also subdued this morning, with the spot price at around $2.5430 but we could see come support soon as the next intra-day support level sits at $2.5350. Gold is retracing some of the losses seen so far over the last few trading days, currently trading higher by 0.2%
FX markets were largely uneventful last night with a mild retracement in NZD and AUD.
Morning Stories
Berkeley (LON:BKGH) stated it has had a 'good performance in a fast changing environment'. Did note 'headwinds and period of prolonged uncertainty'. Berkeley Grp FY17 adj pretax £812.4M vs previous £530.9M y/y, Rev £2.72B vs previous £2.05B y/y and targets FY17 earnings at least on level of 2016
Rio Tinto (LON:RIO), stated it picked Yancoal (AX:YAL) onTuesday to buy its Coal and Allied division in Australia for $2.45B,surprising commodities trading giant Glencore (LON:GLEN), which had put in ahigher bid.
Barclays (LON:BARC) and four former top executives have been charged with fraud on Tuesday over payments to Qatari investors as part of a £12 billion ($15 billion) emergency fundraising during the financial crisis in 2008.
Aviva (LON:AV) is selling about 1 billion pounds ($1.3 billion) worth of bonds and shares it holds in tobaccocompanies, joining a global campaign to divest from the industry
Pallinghurst Resources stated it lowered the minimum number of acceptances from shareholders of Gemfields (LON:GEM) on its acquisition offer, after China's Fosun International (HK:0656) raised its offer for the gemstone company
IP Group (LON:IPO) stated it made an offer of about £466M ($587 million) for rival intellectual property business company Touchstone Innovations PLC (LON:IVO), about a month after its earlier bid was rejected
British subprime lender Provident Financial (LON:PFG) stated it expected operational disruption from their organisation of its home credit division to weigh on its results for the rest of the financial year as reduced agent effectiveness bit into revenue.
Whitbread (LON:WTB) reported Q1 LFL sales +2.9% and are confident of further good progress
What to look out for
BoE's Haldane speaks, RBNZ rate decision and DOE crude inventory report.