London pre-open: Stocks seen flat ahead of payrolls

London stocks were set for a steady open on Friday following heavy losses in the previous session, as investors pause for breath ahead of the latest US non-farm payrolls report.

The FTSE 100 was called to open unchanged at 7,450.

CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "Expectations are for December payrolls to improve to 420k, and the unemployment rate to fall further to 4.1%, although some estimates for payrolls have come in as high as 900m. It will certainly need to see a decent number to help push the US dollar up from current levels, and don’t forget to keep an eye out for an upward November revision.

"Ultimately, today’s number is unlikely to make that much difference to how investors view the potential timing of the first US rate rise, with the most attention likely to be on the average hourly earnings numbers which are expected to fall back from 4.8% to 4.2%. This big drop is likely to be as a result of large-scale temporary hiring in the leadup to Thanksgiving and the Christmas period."

The payrolls report is due at 1330 GMT, along with the unemployment rate and average earnings.

In corporate news, shipping broker Clarksons said it expected to report underlying profit annual of at least £69m stronger than anticipated trading in December. The company said the result was driven by its broking and financial divisions.

Drugmaker AstraZeneca's Alexion rare diseases unit has inked an exclusive collaboration and license agreement with Neurimmune that will see the pair develop and commercialise NI006, an investigational human monoclonal antibody for the treatment of transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy.

AstraZeneca said that under the agreement, Alexion will be granted an exclusive worldwide licence to develop, manufacture and commercialise NI006, with Neurimmune receiving an upfront payment of $30.0m and the potential for additional contingent milestone payments of up to $730.0m, as well as low-to-mid teen royalties on net sales of any approved medicine resulting from the collaboration.