London pre-open: Stocks seen touch lower as eyes turn to Fed

London stocks were expected to open a little lower on Wednesday following a lacklustre session on Wall Street and losses in Asia, as investors digested disappointed earnings from tech giant Apple and looked to the Federal Reserve rate announcement.

The FTSE 100 was seen starting six points lower than Tuesday’s close at 6,278.

On the data front, the first release of first-quarter UK GDP is at 0930 BST. In the US, pending home sales are at 1500 BST and the Fed announcement is at 1900 BST.

“UK preliminary GDP estimates are expected to show a slowdown in the first quarter to 0.4% down from 0.6%. A UK slowdown will inevitably be blamed on Brexit, but with US growth also slowing, the causes appear to be more international,” said CMC Markets’ Jasper Lawler.

As for the Fed decision, he said: “Markets are predicting a 20% probability of a move in June. That seems a long way out of sync with a lot of the recent rhetoric from a number of Fed policymakers. If the Fed wants to keep June open as possibility to match the rhetoric of FOMC members, then markets may be underestimating the risks of a hawkish surprise.”

Barclays' first-quarter profit drops

Barclays reported a dip in profit in its first quarter on Wednesday, with group profit before tax at £793m in the three months to 31 March, down from £1.06bn a year earlier.

The FTSE 100 bank said this reflected an 18% increase in core profit before tax to £1.6bn, though that was more than offset by an increased non-core loss before tax of £815m.

Total income net of insurance claims was off by 11%, at £5.04bn compared with £5.65bn last year.

“We promised to accelerate the pace of progress in reducing non-core so that our group performance converges with our core performance within a reasonable timeframe,” said chief executive James Staley.

“Since 1 January, we have made progress in exiting from Investment Banking in nine countries, completed the sale of our Portuguese retail, wealth and SME banking businesses, and are progressing other announced sales, including the Italian branch network, the Index business and our Asian wealth business, towards completion in 2016.”

Buildings materials firm CRH said a positive trading backdrop in its major markets resulted in a 9% increase in first quarter sales compared with proforma 2015.

It said trading in the Americas was up 22% and Asia 12% with Europe “in line”.

“Group EBITDA for the seasonally less significant first half of the year is expected to be close to €1bn. We expect to continue to make progress in the second half of the year on a Group EBITDA basis.”