Next cautious on new year, Renishaw issues profit warning

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to decline 40 points on Thursday, more than eradicating the tiny gain to 6,199.11 the day before.

Stocks to watch

Full year profits from Next were at the upper end of expectations but the clothing retailer warned the year ahead "may well be the toughest we have faced since 2008". Chief executive Lord Wolfson said: "It may well feel like walking up the down escalator, with a great deal of effort required to stand still" and issuing guidance that included a possible decline in pre-tax profits of 4.5% to £784m.

Engineering firm Renishaw issued a profit warning on Thursday, saying in a trading statement that revenue last year benefited from a number of large orders in the Far East, which had not been repeated to the same extent in the current year.
Renishaw’s board said it had now received information indicating it was unlikely to achieve the trading levels previously anticipated in its half-year report in January.

Newspaper round-up

European ministers are expected on Thursday to push telecommunications and digital service providers to work more closely with government authorities to track down terror suspects as part of a post-Brussels attack crackdown. At a hastily arranged meeting, EU ministers responsible for security issues will call for a European legislative blueprint to be drawn up by June to enable governments to obtain easier access to such “digital evidence”, according to a draft statement seen by the Financial Times. – Financial Times

Boris Johnson has said that leaving the EU would result in “no economic shock” at all to the UK, despite the claims of economists including the Bank of England’s own Governor to the contrary. The London mayor compared fears over an economic shock on the event of a Brexit to the concerns people had over the “millennium bug”, a much prophesied computer glitch which was set to wreak havoc as the world moved into the year 2000, but passed without incident. – Telegraph

The first US shale gas sailed into Europe bringing controversy in its wake. Ineos, the chemical group, said that its own gas carrier arrived in Norway on Wednesday with 27,500 cubic metres of American ethane on board. Shipments to Ineos’s UK refinery at Grangemouth are scheduled to start later this year. - Guardian

Wafic Saïd has launched a lawsuit against Barclays for ditching him as a client after 40 years with no explanation. The Syrian-born billionaire businessman and philanthropist said yesterday that he had instructed lawyers at Carter-Ruck to issue proceedings in the High Court. Barclays is understood to have provided no documents to explain its decision to walk away from Mr Saïd after being served with a so-called subject access report under the Data Protection act. – The Times

US close

US stocks closed lower on Wednesday as oil prices dropped after government data showed a greater-than-expected increase in weekly US crude inventories.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 0.45%, the S&P 500 shed 0.64% and the Nasdaq lost 1.10%.

Oil prices were under pressure after the Energy Information Administration on Wednesday reported US crude stocks rose by 9.4 million barrels to 532.5 million barrels in the week ended 18 March. Analysts had forecast an increase of 2.5 million barrels.