Riverstone pours $100m into Argentina's Aleph Midstream, John Laing set to meet full-year forecasts

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open four points lower on Friday, having closed down 0.19% at 7,402.33 on Thursday.

Stocks to watch

The Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG) has made two onshore wind investments, it announced on Friday, increasing the proportion of its portfolio in France to 13% from 10%. It said it has acquired a 34.6% equity interest and all of the shareholder loans in Fujin SAS - a holding company that owns a portfolio of five operational wind farms in France with a gross generation capacity of 87.8MW. The FTSE 250 company said it also acquired a 100% interest in the Epine windfarm, which it described as a 36MW operational wind farm located in Northern France, near Reims, from TTR Energy and Nordex.

Riverstone Energy confirmed that it has invested $100m in Argentine oil and gas gathering and processing-focused midstream company, Aleph Midstream S.A, which is on track to become the first midstream player focused on providing gathering, processing and evacuation services for oil and gas production of Argentina's "world class" Vaca Muerta shale play.

John Laing said it was on track to meet its expectations for the year despite operational problems at renewable energy projects in Europe and Australia. The infrastructure company left its full-year outlook unchanged and predicted net asset value at the end of December would be broadly in line with management expectations.

Newspaper round-up

Seven investors, who ploughed their savings into businesses owned by the embattled financier Gavin Woodhouse, have applied to the high court to have four of his companies taken into administration. The move comes a day after an undercover investigation by the Guardian and ITV News highlighted questions about the business interests of Woodhouse, who has raised millions of pounds from private investors but whose firms have a multimillion-pound “black hole”. – Guardian

At least 36 illegal miners are believed to have died in a copper mine owned by Glencore in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Thursday. The miners were killed when two ‘galleries’ overlooking an open excavation pit collapsed at the same mining site which claimed six lives in 2016. – Guardian

One in three closed shops will never reopen as retail outlets given the brutal conditions on the high street that make it almost impossible to find another tenant. The new data lays bare the irrevocable changes engulfing the high street as some empty shops will be turned into hotels, gyms and restaurants, according to new analysis by property group Colliers International. – Telegraph

The UK must build more nuclear power stations and invest in carbon capture technology if it is to meet the Government's zero emissions target by 2050, an influential business lobby group has warned. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has urged the Government to follow through on its climate commitments by putting in place stable, long-term energy policies that transcend party politics to support consumers and businesses. – Telegraph

US close

Wall Street trading ended on a mixed note on Thursday, as traders held out hope that the world's two largest economies could finally call a truce on their ongoing trade war.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.04% to close at 26,526.58, while the S&P 500 rose 0.38% to 2,924.92 and the Nasdaq 100 added 0.39% to 7,657.05.

At the open, the Dow was 12.25 points weaker after a mixed performance on Wednesday, when the Dow and S&P 500 both closed lower while the Nasdaq saw out the session with a 0.32% gain on the back of a rally in technology shares.

Focus on Thursday was once again primarily centred on global trade developments, after Trump said a bilateral meeting with his Chinese counterpart could potentially lead to a trade deal.

However, the US president did warn that he was happy to slap more tariffs on virtually all remaining Chinese exports if talks faltered once again.

The South China Morning Post also revealed overnight that officials from Washington and Beijing had tentatively agreed to resume talks, while the Wall Street Journal reported that Chinese leader Xi Jinping was expected to present Trump with his terms on Thursday ahead of the meeting.

China was expected to demand that Washington remove its ban on the sale of US technology to Huawei.