Market News and Views
The FTSE 100 is called to open lower this morning tracking the performances on Wall Street and in Asia overnight as investors wait on the sidelines for more news on the state of the US economy ahead of next week's FOMC meeting. Today's focus will be on the advance reading of the US GDP number at lunchtime followed by other US data later in the session (see below). Overnight news from the UK saw consumer confidence register a small rise in October according to GfK NOP to -19, which was seen as a surprise.
Today's Company announcements
WPP Q3 Trading Update. Reports that revenues in the period rose over 12% to £2.25bn and lfl revenue growth accelerated to 7.5%, its strongest quarter for 10 years with reported revenues now up over 6% in the first 9 months. It noted that it was on course to exceed its full year operating margin target of a one margin point improvement with America and traditional media 'continuing to bite back'. However, it added that the current strong improvement in growth rates, particularly in the US would not last forever.British Airways Interim Results sees its first six month profit in 2 years of £158m on the back of fare rises and cost cutting with revenues up over 8% to £4.45bn. Average passenger revenue/yield rose over 17% to 7.02p. It described the increase in the UK's Air Passenger Duty which takes effect on 1 November as 'unhelpful' in an uncertain economic environment but sa
