AstraZeneca's Beyfortus receives EU approval, Morgan Advanced Materials lifts FY guidance

London pre-open

The FTSE 100 was called to open 47.5 points higher ahead of the bell on Friday after closing 0.62% firmer in the previous session at 7,188.63.

Stocks to watch

Drugmaker AstraZeneca said on Friday that its Beyfortus asset had received European Union approval for the prevention of respiratory syncytial virus lower respiratory tract disease in newborns and infants.

AstraZeneca stated that Beyfortus was now the first and only single-dose RSV passive immunisation for the broad infant population, including those born healthy, at term or pre-term, or with specific health conditions. The FTSE 100-listed group added that the European Commission was the first regulatory body to grant approval to Beyfortus

Morgan Advanced Materials lifted profit and revenue guidance on Friday as sales for the first nine months of the year rose 10.5%.

The manufacturer now expects full-year organic constant-currency growth to be in the range 7-9%, above previous guidance, and adjusted operating profit to be marginally above the top end of current analysts' forecasts.

Newspaper round-up

The owner of the Scotsman and Yorkshire Post has revealed it is plotting a surprise takeover of much larger rival Reach, the parent company of the Mirror and Express titles and hundreds of regional newspapers including the Manchester Evening News. National World, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange and run by the former boss of the Mirror newspaper group David Montgomery, has said that it is in the early stages of a potential offer for Reach. – Guardian

Elon Musk will begin mass layoffs at Twitter on Friday, sharply reducing the social media platform's workforce, the company said in an email to staff on Thursday. "In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday," said the email. The New York Times and Washington Post both reported on the layoffs and cited the internal email. – Guardian

Deloitte has axed half of its 16-person executive team and replaced them with younger partners as part of a major overhaul of its UK leadership. The Big Four accounting and consulting firm said eight of its most senior partners, including its managing partner, will leave its executive team to make way for six newcomers in an unexpected reshuffle. – Telegraph

Jeremy Hunt is preparing a raid on entrepreneurs, savers and landlords to help plug the £50.0bn hole in Britain's public finances, The Telegraph can reveal. The Chancellor is considering an increase in the headline rate of capital gains tax and taxes on dividends at the Autumn Statement. – Telegraph

Mining giant Glencore has been ordered to pay £281.0m in penalties after a judge said it had committed "corporate corruption on a widespread scale" across Africa through the "disease" of bribery. Sentencing the FTSE 100 company after a two-day hearing at Southwark crown court in London, Mr Justice Fraser said "the facts demonstrate not only sustained criminality but sophisticated devices to disguise it". – The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks lost ground on Thursday as market participants continued to digest the Federal Reserve's 75-basis point rate hike and looked ahead to today's key nonfarm payrolls report.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.46% at 32,001.25, while the S&P 500 shed 1.06% to 3,719.89, and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.73% weaker at 10,342.94.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com