Anglo American total production improves, inflows slow at St. James's Place

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open five points lower on Thursday, having closed down 0.85% at 6,842.88 on Wednesday.

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Anglo American reported a 7% increase in total production on a copper equivalent basis for the fourth quarter of 2018, compared to the same period in 2017, excluding the effect of the stoppage at Minas-Rio. De Beers diamond production increased by 12% to 9.1m carats due to production increases at Orapa. Copper production increased by 23% to 183,500 tonnes, with increases at all operations, reflecting continued strong operational performance and planned higher grades, the company said.

St. James's Place saw inflows slow in the final months of the year and saw challenging market conditions squeeze funds under management. The FTSE 100 wealth manager recorded net inflows of £2.6bn in the final quarter but group FUM shrank to £95.6bn by the end of December from £100.6bn three months before.

Online gaming provider 888 Holdings announced on Thursday that Itai Pazner, previously its chief operating officer, has been appointed as its new chief executive officer. The FTSE 250 company said that appointment came after Itai Frieberger stood down as the group's CEO. It said Frieberger would remain a director of the Group for up to 12 months during his notice period, to help to enable a “seamless transition” of responsibilities to his successor, and support the progress of a number of 888’s strategic initiatives that were already underway.

Newspaper round-up

Fears are growing internationally that a no-deal Brexit poses a threat to the stability of the global economy, the head of Britain’s leading business body has warned. Carolyn Fairbairn, director-general of the CBI, said the failure to sort out Britain’s departure from the European Union was damaging Britain’s brand abroad and had joined a list of systemic risks to the world economy. - Guardian

Drug companies will be paid millions for developing antibiotics to fight a superbug threat described as more dangerous than terrorism or climate change. Matt Hancock, the health secretary, will introduce a “subscription model” to encourage the creation of medicines to fight antibiotic-resistant infections. - The Times

Airbus is assessing which investments to pull from the UK, with the aerospace giant's boss signalling the company has lost its patience the UK government’s failure to deliver a Brexit deal. In a video message chief executive Tom Enders revealed the pan-European company’s frustration at the lack of progress. - Telegraph

US close

US stocks carved out some gains on Wednesday, as traders shrugged off the previous day's losses despite lingering concerns about trade relations between the US and China.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.70% higher at 24,575.62, while the S&P 500 moved ahead 0.22% to 2,638.70 and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.08% to 7,025.77.

The Dow closed over 170 points higher after positive trading despite reports late on Tuesday that the White House had cancelled a planned trade meeting this week with Chinese officials due to ongoing disagreements over intellectual property rules.

The reports were later refuted by Trump's economic advisor Larry Kudlow, who also said that the end of month talks would still be taking place and would be "very, very important" and "determinative".

Oanda analyst Craig Erlam said: "Promising trade talks has been a key driver of the rebound in markets over the last four weeks and if these talks are stalling and meetings are, in fact, being cancelled, investors may quickly lose confidence."