London pre-open: Stocks seen muted ahead of payrolls

London stocks were set for a fairly muted open on Friday as investors digested a downbeat reading on the Chinese manufacturing sector and eyed the release of the latest non-farm payrolls report.

The FTSE 100 was called to open four points higher at 6,972.

The Caixin/Markit manufacturing purchasing managers’ index for January fell to 48.3 from 49.7 in December, marking its worst reading since February 2016 and missing expectations for a reading of 49.5.

Meanwhile, US President Trump said on Thursday that he will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping soon to seal a deal on trade. Speaking at the White House during a meeting with Chinese vice premier Liu He following two days of trade talks between US and Chinese delegates, Trump said he was optimistic that the two nations could reach "the biggest deal ever made".

The big focus on Friday will be the US non-farm payrolls report, unemployment rate and average earnings, all due at 1330 GMT.

CMC Markets analyst David Madden said: "The jobs report is tipped to show an increase of 165,000 in January, and that compares with 312,000 that were added in December. The unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 3.9%, and yearly average earnings are expected to remain at 3.2%.

"The wages component of the update is very important, as workers who earn more, tend to spend more, and that drives the economy along."

In the UK, Markit’s manufacturing PMI is at 0930 GMT.

In corporate news, Paddy Power Betfair said it had bought an initial 51% controlling stake in Georgian betting outfit Adjarabet for £101m, adding that it expected to snap up the rest of the company within three years.

Adjarabet is licensed to offer a full suite of online betting and gaming products in Georgia including casino, sports, poker and peer-to-peer games. It has an estimated 40% share of total online revenues.

Glencore unearthed more copper, cobalt and nickel in the fourth quarter of 2018 compared to the quarter before, while zinc, lead, gold and silver all dipped.

For the year as a whole, the mining and commodities trading giant turned out 1.45m tonnes of copper, up 11% than the year before.