London pre-open: Stocks seen lower on weak Asian cues as oil slides

London stocks are expected to open lower on Wednesday, taking their cue from a downbeat session in Asia amid sliding oil prices.

The FTSE 100 is seen starting 125 points lower than Tuesday’s close at 5,751.

“This morning we’ll get the latest labour market data from the UK and once again, the numbers are expected to be rather mixed,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda.

“Unemployment is seen remaining at 5.2% in November but wage growth is slowing having accelerated since the summer. Average earnings including bonuses are expected to have risen by 2.1% which is not going to be enough to convince the Bank of England that the time for rate hikes has arrived. Not when inflation remains extremely low and the global economic environment so challenging.”

UK claimant count, average weekly earnings and the unemployment rate are due at 0930 GMT. In the US, CPI is at 1330 GMT, along with housing starts.

BHP Billiton cuts iron ore output forecast after Samarco

BHP Billiton maintained full year guidance for oil, copper and coal but iron ore production is expected to be reduced by 10m tonnes due to the dam disaster at Brazil's Samarco.

The Anglo-Australian miner's underlying half-year profits will be hit by charges of between US$300m and US$450m due to redundancy costs, operational closures, inventory write-downs stemming from weaker commodity prices, and "global royalty and taxation matters".

Shell said it expected full year 2015 earnings on a current cost of supplies basis excluding identified items are expected to be in the region of $10.4bn – 10.7bn.

Capital investment in 2015 is expected to be 20-% lower at $29bn as a result of efficiency improvements and more selectivity on new investments. Capital investment for Shell and BG combined in 2016 is currently expected to be $33bn, around a 45% reduction from combined spending.