BHP exceeds copper guidance, solid start for Johnson Matthey

London open

The FTSE 100 was predicted to rise 25 points on Wednesday after finishing essentially flat the day before.

Stocks to watch

Water and wastewater company Severn Trent posted a trading update for the period from 1 April to 19 July on Wednesday, as it continued to focus on enhancing its customer service, operational and financial performance. The FTSE 100 firm said it is making good progress with its plans to deliver “targeted efficiency savings” in the second year of the AMP6 regulatory period.

Miner BHP Billiton exceeded full-year production guidance for petroleum, copper and metallurgical coal, and achieved record full-year production at Western Australia Iron Ore. The FTSE 100 group said it expects to achieve full-year cost guidance at its major assets, with unit costs forecast to decline further next year.

First quarter sales rose 6% at speciality chemicals Johnson Matthey thanks to strong sales growth in Emission Control Technologies and further progress in new businesses. Underlying profit before tax for the full year was said to be "broadly in line" with last year at constant currency rates.

Newspaper round-up

Amazon is signing up amateur drivers to make deliveries in their spare time, the latest company to turn to the “gig economy” of informal employment. Under a scheme Amazon began testing in its home town of Seattle last year, the US ecommerce group will offer British car owners cash to ferry parcels between a local distribution centre and customers’ homes. – Financial Times

Where will the road to Brexit end? Theresa May, Britain’s new prime minister, travels to Berlin on Wednesday to meet Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, in the first leg of a political journey whose final destination remains uncertain. There are plenty of package solutions, ranging from Norway to Canada and even tiny Albania. The problem is that senior Whitehall and Brussels officials are unconvinced any will work. Brexit is likely to end with a one-of-a-kind result. – Financial Times

Plunging levels of home ownership and an increased reliance on state benefits to top up salaries have meant that Britain’s middle-income families increasingly look like the poor households of the past, according to one of the UK’s leading thinktanks. A report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies showed that the old link between worklessness and child poverty had been broken, with record levels of employment leading to a drop in the number of poor children living in homes where no adult works. – Guardian

US close

US stocks finished mixed on Tuesday as investors waded through a batch of corporate earnings from the likes of Johnson & Johnson and Lockheed Martin.

The Dow Jones Industrial rose 0.14% but US stocks wavered on Tuesday as investors weighed corporate earnings from the likes to Goldman Sachs, Netflix and Yahoo.

At 1435 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial rose 0.02% but the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq dropped 0.14% and 0.38%, respectively.