London pre-open: Stocks to drop after Wall Street plunge

London stocks were set to slump at the open on Wednesday, taking their cue from a weak session on Wall Street following the release of disappointing data.

The FTSE 100 was called to open down around 50 points at 7,273.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, said: "Ugly economic data was responsible for a decent plunge in US equities on Tuesday.

"The S&P500 slid 2% yesterday and Nasdaq took another 3% hit following a soft Conference Board consumer confidence index and sharp fall in Richmond manufacturing index, hinting at softer economic activity as a result of tighter Federal Reserve policy.

"European futures hint at a bearish start today, though the firm oil and commodity prices should help FTSE tempering losses."

In corporate news, greeting cards and gifts retailer Moonpig said that full-year underlying earnings and adjusted pre-tax profits had slumped in the twelve months ended 31 April.

Moonpig posted an 18.7% drop in adjusted underlying earnings to £74.9m and a 30.9% year-on-year decline in adjusted pre-tax profits to £51.5m amid a 17.3% fall in revenues to £304.3m and a 0.4% contraction in the group's EBITDA margin to 24.6%.

Variety goods retailer B&M European Value Retail said UK first-quarter like-for-like revenue decline fell 9.1% as “exceptionally high sales” last year during Covid lockdowns distorted comparatives.

UK revenue in the three months to June 25 came in at £957m. On a group-wide basis it was 2.2% lower at £1.16bn and the company maintained annual guidance of adjusted core profits of £550m-£600m.