Flutter raises over £800m for expansion, B&M sales rise
London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to open 69 points lower on Friday, having closed up 1.21% at 6,218.79 on Thursday.
Stocks to watch
B&M European Value Retail reported a rise in sales in the first eight weeks of the new fiscal year as locked-down Britons took advantage of the sunny weather to do home repairs and gardening during the coronavirus crisis. Like-for-like sales rose 22.7% in the period, while the company also reported a strong end to fourth quarter sales as customers packed into stores during the wave of panic buying in March to stockpile groceries, driving a 6.6% rise.
Flutter Entertainment has raised more than £800m in a share placing to reduce debt and be ready to expand its US business.The gambling company, which owns Paddy Power, launched the equity raising on Thursday evening. Flutter raised £812.6m of gross proceeds by selling shares representing 5.5% of its share capital. The placing price of £10.10 a share was 4.7% less than the shares' closing price on 28 May.
AstraZeneca announced on Friday that detailed results from the phase 3 ‘ADAURA’ trial showed that ‘Tagrisso’, or osimertinib, demonstrated a “statistically significant and clinically meaningful” improvement in disease-free survival in the adjuvant treatment of patients with early-stage epidermal growth factor receptor-mutated (EGFRm) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), after complete tumour resection with curative intent. The FTSE 100 pharmaceuticals giant said that, in the primary endpoint of disease-free survival in patients with stage 2 and 3a disease, adjuvant treatment with Tagrisso reduced the risk of disease recurrence or death by 83%. Disease-free survival results in the overall trial population, stage 1b through 3a, demonstrated a reduction in the risk of disease recurrence or death of 79%.
Newspaper round-up
Britain’s manufacturers are poised to make tens of thousands of workers redundant after a worse-than-expected slump in orders, prompted by the pandemic that has left many firms struggling to survive. A survey by the manufacturers’ lobby group, Make UK, found that 25% of companies are already drawing up plans to cut jobs in the next six months. A further 45% say they are considering redundancies. – Guardian
The number of cars built in Britain last month plunged by 99.7pc as manufacturing collapsed due to the coronavirus lockdown. Just 197 cars were made according to stark industry figures that highlight the scale of the crisis in the automotive industry. That compared with the 71,000 produced in April 2019, which was a particularly weak month as it coincided with factory shutdowns around the UK's expected departure from the European Union. – Telegraph
More than 100 MPs have demanded that a lifeline self-employment support scheme be extended amid fears millions of workers face ruin if it ends on Monday. Politicians from all major parties - including four Conservatives - called on Chancellor Rishi Sunak to extend the programme until lockdown measures are relaxed further. – Telegraph
Monsoon Accessorize is set to file for insolvency, putting 3,500 jobs at risk as it becomes the latest high street victim of the pandemic. The retailer is on the brink of appointing administrators, in what its management hopes could provide breathing space to find a buyer or investor to salvage some of the business. – The Times
Amazon is to offer full-time jobs to 125,000 of the 175,000 part-time employees it hired in America this year to deal with a surge in demand during the coronavirus pandemic. The decision, announced yesterday by the $1.2 trillion technology group, suggests it is confident that it will hang on to the market share it has gained since the virus struck the US. Amazon’s ecommerce business powered ahead as Americans chose to shop from home during the lockdown. However, the company has been criticised for its treatment of warehouse workers. – The Times
US close
Major indices turned about-face on Thursday as a dire jobless claims report, weaker-than-expected gross domestic product numbers and Trump's announcement of a press conference all weighed on sentiment.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.58% at 25,400.64, while the S&P 500 was 0.21% weaker at 3,029.73 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.46% softer at 9,368.99.
The Dow closed 147.63 points lower on Thursday, reversing some of the gains recorded in the previous session as optimism regarding the reopening of the economy and a potential Covid-19 vaccine offset fears around a heightening of tensions between the world's two largest economies.
Thursday's primary focus was this week's weekly initial jobless claims report from the Labor Department which revealed that firings in the US had continued at a furious pace, albeit at a moderately slower pace, while hirings picked up for the first time since the pandemic.
According to the Department of Labor, the rate of initial unemployment claims fell by 323,000 over the week ending on 23 May to reach 2.123m - slightly higher than the 2.0m clip forecast by economists. So far, Covid-19 has claimed 40.7m jobs in the US since the outbreak hit in March.
Tech stocks were down at the close, weighing on the Nasdaq, as word broke that Donald Trump planned to issue an executive order against social media giants, escalating his war on Twitter.
A draft copy of the order will see the White House limit legal protections afforded to social media companies, making it easier for federal regulators to hold companies liable for limiting users' freedom of speech.