Proactive Investors - FTSE 100 is expected to open higher extending yesterday’s gains following a strong rally in the US and gains in Asia.
Spread betting companies are calling the lead index up by around 22 points.
In the US, the Dow was 1.6% higher at 33,376, while the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 both posted gains of 1.5% to close at 10,709 and 3,878 points respectively.
Positive earnings from Nike (NYSE:NKE) and FedEx (NYSE:FDX), coupled with strong US consumer confidence number for December, helped push yields slightly lower as the major indices all closed well in the green.
In Asia on Thursday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.5%. In China, the Shanghai Composite was down 0.5%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was rallying strongly, up 2.3% in late trade. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney closed up 0.5%.
In the absence of any planned corporate updates the early focus in London will be on the final GDP figures for quarter three which should confirm the UK economy shrank between July to September.
The preliminary fall of 0.2% was slightly better than expected.