Earnings surge at Antofagasta, while sales cruise higher at Ocado
London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to open 17 points higher on Tuesday, after closing up 0.33% at 7,367.08 on Monday.
Stocks to watch
Higher metals prices and lower cash costs helped push full year earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation at Antofagasta up 78.7% to $1.6bn. Group revenue in 2016 was $3.62bn, up 12.3% higher than in 2015. The final dividend for the year was 15.3 cents a share, bringing the total dividend for the year to 18.4 cents. Group copper production in 2017 is expected to be in the range of 685,000 - 720,000 tonnes, similar to the 709,400 tonnes produced in 2016.
Sales growth at Ocado remained in cruise control in the first quarter of 2017 and while order size continued to shrink it did so at a slower rate. Exactly the same as in the fourth quarter of last year, for the 13 weeks to 26 February, the online grocery group saw sales climb 13.1%.
Oilfield services company Wood Group won two contracts totalling $84.89m to provide engineering services to develop deepwater production for BP’s Mad Dog project in the Gulf of Mexico. For the first $80m contract, Wood Group - which has been contracted by Samsung Heavy Industries - will provide engineering and procurement services for the topsides for BP’s Mad Dog phase two floating production unit.
Specialist building products distributor SIG posted its results for the 2016 calendar year on Tuesday, at the same time as confirming Meinie Oldersma as its new group chief executive. The FTSE 250 firm’s revenue grew 11.2% during the year, or 4.4% at constant currencies, to £2.74bn, while underlying operating profit slipped 8.6%, or 14.9% at constant exchange rates, to £91.3m. Its board said Meinie Oldersma had agreed to join SIG as group chief executive, coming from the same role at Brammer and replacing interim chief executive Mel Ewell, who will revert back to being a non-executive director.
Newspaper round-up
Theresa May’s Brexit bill on Monday night cleared all its hurdles in the Houses of Parliament, opening the way for the prime minister to trigger article 50 by the end of March. Peers accepted the supremacy of the House of Commons late on Monday night after MPs overturned amendments aimed at guaranteeing the rights of EU citizens in the UK and giving parliament a “meaningful vote” on the final Brexit deal. - Guardian
…However, Downing Street made clear yesterday that Mrs May would not use her mandate to trigger Article 50 this week. Instead — infuriating the European Commission and other member states — she is expected to delay an announcement until the last week of March. - The Times
Donald Trump's latest executive order paves way for downsizing of agencies as president seeks funds for armed forces and the Mexican wall. The US president launched an overhaul of the federal government on Monday, signing an executive order he said would eventually streamline services and cut costs. - Telegraph
Stronger exports and the “great British consumer” will help the UK to weather Brexit uncertainty this year, according to Morgan Stanley, which almost doubled its 2017 growth forecast amid a series of upgrades by business groups and City forecasters. Morgan Stanley now expects the UK economy to expand by 1.8% this year, up from a previous forecast of just 1%. - Telegraph
With a rapidly growing middle class living in constant fear of shoddy counterfeit clothing and a perpetual cycle of food scares, China appears – on the surface at least – to be the perfect match for Marks and Spencer’s brand of trusted quality. But barely a year after bosses expressed positivity as they opened their tenth store, the British retailer is pulling out of the Chinese high street this month. - Telegraph
Lloyds Banking Group is to shed almost 2,000 additional jobs as it prepares to contract out a large part of its information technology expertise to IBM, the American computing group. Some 1,961 employees and contractors would transfer to IBM and all but 193 would lose their jobs within four years as IBM then exported the work to offshore centres. - The Times
US close
US equity markets closed little changed on Monday as investors priced-in expectations of Federal Reserve interest hike this week, while oil prices continued their descent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the session off slightly, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed in marginal positive territory.
The Fed's two-day policy meeting kicks off on Tuesday, amid expectations it will raise the funds rate by 25 basis points to between 0.75% and 1%.
Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda, said: "The clearly coordinated effort to convince investors that a rate hike is firmly on the table on Wednesday, from a position in which it appeared out the question, has almost worked too well with markets now almost fully pricing one in.
"The risk is that the Fed now struggles to live up to expectations and should it for whatever reason delay raising interest rates, it may have unintentionally dramatically misguided investors which could result in significant volatility come Wednesday."