NatWest delivers 'strong' Q3 performance, IAG swings to quarterly profit

London pre-open

The FTSE 100 was being called to open 54.7 points lower ahead of the bell on Friday after closing out the previous session 0.25% higher at 7,073.69.

Stocks to watch

UK bank NatWest said on Friday that it had continued to deliver a strong financial performance in the third quarter despite operating in a "challenging environment".

NatWest posted a third quarter attributable profit of £187.0m and a return on tangible equity of 2.9%, as well as a "robust balance sheet" with strong capital and liquidity levels.

British Airways owner IAG on Friday said it had swung to a third-quarter profit as airline travel continued to recover from the Covid pandemic and despite the travel chaos at London’s Heathrow last summer.

The company posted an operating profit of €1.2bn compared with a loss of €452.0m a year ago. It said it now expected an annual profit of €1.1bn.

Newspaper round-up

A Norway-style windfall tax on energy companies could raise £33.3bn extra by 2027, plugging a hole in government finances and helping keep energy bills low, analysis has found. The new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, is looking at extending the “sunset clause” in the energy profits levy by two years beyond 2025 as a result of the booming profits fossil fuel companies have been recording owing to the war in Ukraine. – Guardian

Sales of air fryers, slow cookers, microwaves and electric blankets are soaring as households faced with unaffordable energy bills look for ways to reduce their power use. Air fryers – a small countertop convection oven that uses less electricity than a conventional cooker – are in huge demand, with the number sold in September four times higher than in the same month last year, according to the market research firm GfK. So are electric cooking pots such as pressure cookers, rice cookers, slow cookers or multifunctional pots that can do all three things, with sales up 80%. – Guardian

Amazon shares collapsed by 18% on Thursday night, wiping $202bn (£175bn) off its valuation in one of the biggest one-day sell-offs of all time. The tech giant warned of weaker consumer spending in the run up to Christmas. The plunge in its valuation left Amazon valued at around $930bn, the lowest level since the onset of the Covid crisis in March 2020. – Telegraph

Shell is in talks with the Government as ministers consider a fresh windfall tax on oil and gas companies to help fill a £35.0bn black hole in the public finances. Ben van Buerden, chief executive of the oil and gas giant, said he accepted the case for higher taxes after the industry was boosted by surging fossil fuel prices following Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. – Telegraph

Made.com’s auditor generated nearly £1.0m in non-audit fees from the retailer’s ill-fated float, raising “major concerns” over the accountant’s independence. EY netted the substantial fees advising on the listing as well as from giving the online retailer a clean bill of health in the run-up to the market debut. This is contrary to the best practice set down by shareholder advisory groups and the industry’s regulator. – The Times

US close

Wall Street was mixed at the close on Thursday, with the Dow stronger on GDP data, while the Nasdaq was under pressure from some disappointing big tech earnings.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.61% at 32,033.28, while the S&P 500 fell 0.51% to 3,807.30 and the Nasdaq Composite slid 1.63% to 10,792.68.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com