Tate & Lyle profits surge, Johnson Matthey's fall on lower prices

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 10 points higher on Thursday, having closed down 1.75% on Wednesday at 7,627,10.

Stocks to watch

Food and beverage maker Tate & Lyle posted a surge in annual profits and sales, driven by higher prices on the back of soaring inflation. The company on Thursday said pre-tax profit came in at £152m versus £42m a year earlier. Revenue was up 27% to £1.75bn and free cash flow was £119m, £47m higher reflecting strong conversion. For the year to March 2024, Tate & Lyle said it expected revenue growth of 4% to 6% and adjusted core earnings to rise by 7 - 9%.

Johnson Matthey reported a fall in annual profit on Thursday as lower average precious metal prices and higher costs hit the bottom line. The specialist technology group said underlying operating profit came in at £465m the year to end-March, down 21% from a year earlier, but higher than the £455.1m forecast in company-compiled estimates. Revenue fell 7% to £15bn.

Newspaper round-up

Microsoft has filed an appeal against the UK competition watchdog’s decision to block its $69bn (£56bn) acquisition of the Call of Duty creator Activision Blizzard. The US tech company confirmed that it had formally lodged an appeal against the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) verdict against the deal last month. Its case will be argued before the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT). – Guardian

The founder of Monzo has quit London in favour of San Francisco as he said the US was “much more accepting” of tech companies than Britain. Tom Blomfield, who co-founded the banking app in 2015 and left the company in 2021, said Britain was “not always favourable to ambitious founders who want to do something unusual”. – Telegraph

Nearly 4 million people are being paid jobless benefits without ever having to look for work following a surge in claims of mental health and joint pain during lockdown. Around 3.7 million of the 5.2 million people currently claiming out of work benefits have been granted an exemption from finding a job, meaning that taxpayers face bankrolling their benefits indefinitely. – Telegraph

Energy bills will fall by 17 per cent to an average of £2,074 a year for a typical household from July, Ofgem has announced. Households have been paying record high prices since October — equivalent to £2,500 a year based on typical usage — under the government’s energy price guarantee. – The Times

A lawsuit against the former boss of Barclays alleging that he hid what he knew about Jeffrey Epstein while working at a US bank has been allowed to proceed by a New York judge. Jes Staley, 66, faces a claim that could run to tens of millions of dollars from JP Morgan, the US bank where he filled senior roles between 1999 and 2013, before joining Barclays in 2015. – The Times

US close

Wall Street closed on a low note Wednesday, as markets sank amid prolonged negotiations over the federal debt ceiling, and uncertainty sparked by the release of the Federal Reserve's recent meeting minutes.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.77% at 32,799.92, while the S&P 500 slid 0.73% to end the session at 4,115.24.

The Nasdaq Composite, meanwhile, saw a slightly less severe drop of 0.61% to settle at 12,484.16.

Discussions over the federal debt ceiling continued with no sign of a resolution, fostering investor unease.

Adding to the uncertainty were the minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting, which showed disagreement among officials over the possibility of future interest rate hikes.