By Samuel Indyk
Investing.com – At 07:17GMT, FTSE 100 futures are trading lower by 2.3% at 7139.
In FX markets, GBP/USD is trading at 1.3302, EUR/GBP is trading at 0.8446. The US Dollar Index is down 0.15%.
Today’s calendar looks set to remain quiet with US markets closing early due to Thanksgiving. Highlights include Swiss GDP and Eurozone M3 Money Supply.
Coronavirus
A new COVID variant, B.1.1.529, discovered in Southern Africa has been described as the “most significant” seen yet. The new variant is highly mutated and there are fears it could be resistant to the current vaccinations.
Stocks
Diageo (LON:DGE) - Commencing next tranche of previously announced £4.5 billion capital return programme. Entered into -discretionary agreement with Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) International to enable the company to buy back shares with a value of up to £0.55 billion.
JD Wetherspoon (LON:JDW) – Chairman and founder Tim Martin has accused major shareholder Fidelity of breaking the corporate governance code.
Synthomer (LON:SYNTS) - Appointed Essentra CFO Lily Liu as new CFO, succeeding Steve Bennett.
Essentra (LON:ESNT) - To commence a strategic review of the Packaging division. This review will run in parallel with the previously announced strategic review of Filters, which is progressing as planned. Both reviews are likely to conclude in Q2 2022 at the earliest.
ScS Group (LON:SCSS) - Total two-year like-for-like order growth of 0.9% for the 16 weeks ending 20 November 2021. Seen a reduction in store footfall and conversion over the last seven weeks. At 20 November 2021, the Group's order book was £131.9m, £71.5m above the same point two years ago.