Smiths de-risks pension liability, IAG profit flies lower in third quarter

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 10 points lower on Friday, after closing up 0.41% at 6,986.57 on Thursday.

Stocks to watch

Engineer Smiths Group is to de-risk its pension liabilities further with a £250m bulk buy-in agreement with an insurer. The trustee of the Smiths Industries Pension Scheme said on Friday it has entered into a bulk annuity buy-in agreement with Pension Insurance Corporation, an insurer of defined benefit pensions, covering £254m worth of liabilities relating to over 3,000 legacy pensioners and dependants.

International Consolidated Airlines Group posted its group consolidated results for the nine months to 30 September on Friday, with third quarter operating profit €1.21bn before exceptional items, down from €1.25bn a year ago. The FTSE 100 firm said the net foreign exchange operating profit impact for the quarter was an adverse €162m, with passenger unit revenue was down 13.7% and at constant currency down 5.9%. Diluted earnings per share were up 18.3% before exceptional items and 23.8% after exceptional items.

Newspaper round-up

Deepening problems in France’s nuclear power sector are threatening to increase energy bills for UK consumers this winter because of a squeeze on the supply of imported electricity. Safety concerns over the resilience of certain components has led to the shutdown of several French reactors, cutting the amount of French electricity available for export across the English channel. Britain has relied on imports for more than 7 per cent of its electricity so far this year, most of it through subsea interconnectors with the French and Dutch power grids. – Financial Times

The mayor of London is to warn the government that its “hard-headed, hard-nosed, hard Brexit approach” is reckless and will cause the loss of millions of jobs, not just in the financial district but across the UK. Sadiq Khan will tell business leaders that the vote for Brexit did not mean the government needed to choose a route of “economic self-sabotage” and will urge Theresa May to approach the UK’s departure from the EU with more pragmatism. - Guardian

European Union leaders have expressed hope of signing a trade deal with Canada after Belgian politicians overcame differences that had been blocking the treaty. The Belgian prime minister, Charles Michel, confirmed that leaders of five regional parliaments had reached an agreement with the federal government shortly after midday on Thursday. – Guardian

Barclays and Deutsche Bank tried their damnedest not to be party poopers on the 30th anniversary of the biggest regulatory shake-up in the history of the City. But in the end it was less of a Big Bang and more of a damp squib really. – Telegraph

Thousands of small companies have been fined for failing to enrol staff in a workplace pension as businesses struggle to cope with the biggest overhaul to retirement savings in generations. An increase in enforcement action by the pensions regulator resulted in more than 3,700 businesses being issued with penalties between July and September, compared with 861 in the previous three months. – The Times

Tata Sons, the ultimate parent company of Jaguar Land Rover and Tata Steel UK, could embark on a multibillion-pound asset sale or bring in friendly Asian or Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund investors to buy out the stake held in Tata by the family of Cyrus Mistry, its deposed chairman. News of the attempts to cut Mr Mistry out of Tata came as the Indian family which controls the international trading empire increased the heat in one of the most poisonous corporate defenestrations of recent times. – The Times

US close

Wall Street fell back amid a torrent of quarterly earnings and another leg higher for market interest rates.

By closing bell the Dow Jones Industrial Average had slipped 0.16% to 18,169.68 points, the S&P 500 gave back 0.30% to 2,133.04 points and the Nasdaq was off 0.65% to 5,215.97 points.

"The market reaction to Q3 results has been rather muted so far and asymmetric to the downside. The median outperformance of the US stocks that beat estimates is 0.6% on the results day, while those that miss estimates underperform by 2.3%," JP Morgan strategist Emmanuel Cau said in a research report sent to clients overnight.

Benchmark 10-year US Treasury note yields rose six basis points to 1.85% despite mixed economic data, with the odds of a 25 basis point rate hike implied by Fed funds futures creeping higher to 78.5% according to the CME´s Fed Watch tool.

Google parent Alphabet and Amazon.com were to publish results after the close.

By sectors, interest rate sensitive REITs fared worst, while the KBW Bank Index added 0.47% to 75.10.

So-called 'core' orders for capital goods dropped by 1.2% over the month in September (consensus: 0.0%).