Barclays profits better-than-expected, LSE reports 'resilient' third quarter

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open four points higher on Friday, having closed up 0.16% on Thursday, at 5,785.65.

Stocks to watch

Barclays on Thursday reported better-than-expected third quarter profits on the back of a strong performance from its consumer businesses as bad loan provision fell sharply from the previous three months. The bank posted a pre-tax profit of £1.1 billion for the three months to September, compared with £200m a year ago and double analysts forecasts. Impairment and provision charges were £608m, up 32%, but two thirds lower than the previous three months. Its core capital ratio, a major measure of financial strength, rose to 14.6% against expectations of 14%.

London Stock Exchange Group reported a “resilient” third quarter performance on Friday, despite “challenging” market conditions. The FTSE 100 company said quarterly total income was up 2% to £600m,. While on a nine-month year-to-date basis, total income was up 6% to £1.84bn. It said the proposed acquisition of Refinitiv was also making progress, with the deal expected to complete in the first quarter of 2021.

Newspaper round-up

Plans for cars to drive themselves on UK motorways as soon as 2021 are unlikely to go ahead after insurers warned government proposals were risking lives and “hugely wrong”. Cars with the technology to keep in lane, accelerate and brake automatically will be on the road next year, and ministers had proposed that drivers could relinquish control to their vehicles at speeds of up to 70mph on motorways. - Guardian

The car industry has said a no-deal Brexit will add thousands of pounds to the cost of electric and conventional cars. A no-deal Brexit would add 10% to the cost of new cars imported from the EU. The average price of cars imported to the UK from the EU is about £19,000, meaning car buyers could overnight face an additional £1,900 per vehicle, according to sales data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), a lobby group. - Guardian

Rishi Sunak’s £13bn rescue plan will help protect 500,000 hospitality jobs but cannot prevent a winter crisis in the battered industry, bosses have said. The Chancellor’s latest package is expected to stop thousands of lay-offs planned when furlough comes to an end later this month - but pub and restaurant chiefs warned that only a more business-friendly Covid regime can stave off disaster in the longer term. - Telegraph

National Savings & Investments has suggested that it could cut interest rates further and close products after a record sum of nearly £40 billion was invested by savers during lockdown. The Treasury-owned body said yesterday that it had accumulated £38.3 billion in the first six months of the financial year as older savers deposited cash, with £23.8 billion raised between July and September. - The Times

Household wealth in Britain has suffered the biggest hit of that in any of the world’s major economies this year. Total wealth in the UK slid from $14.6 trillion (£11 billion) to about $13.7 trillion in the six months to the end of June, according to a study by Credit Suisse. Britain’s cohort of multimillionaires and billionaires has also endured the heaviest decline of any country, the Swiss bank found. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks finished firmer on Thursday, as the upcoming US election and stimulus talks were firmly in focus.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.54% at 23,363.66 and the S&P 500 added 0.52% to 3,453.49, while the Nasdaq Composite managed gains of 0.19% to 11,506.01.

The Dow closed 152.84 points higher on Thursday, reversing the losses it recorded at the open, as US Director of National Intelligence John Ratfcliffe accused Russia and Iran late on Wednesday of trying to interfere with the 2020 US presidential election.

Ratfcliffe said that merely weeks ahead of election day, foreign actors were seeking to undermine Americans’ confidence in the integrity of the vote and to spread misinformation.

"We have confirmed that some voter registration information has been obtained by Iran, and separately, by Russia," he stated.