London pre-open: Stocks seen muted ahead of payrolls
London stocks were set for a muted open on Friday as investors keep their powder dry ahead of the US non-farm payrolls report.
The FTSE 100 was called to open just three points higher at 7,081.
Deutsche Bank said: "Looking ahead, today’s main focus will be on the US jobs report for September later on.
"Last month the report significantly underwhelmed expectations, coming in at just +235k, which was well beneath the +733k consensus expectation and the slowest pace since January. That raised questions as to the state of the labour market recovery, and helped to complicate a potential decision on tapering, with nonfarm payrolls still standing over 5m beneath their pre-Covid peak.
"This month, our US economists are expecting a somewhat stronger +400k increase in nonfarm payrolls, which should see the unemployment rate tick down to a post-pandemic low of 5.1%.
"On the bright side at least, the ADP’s report of private payrolls for September on Wednesday came in at an above-forecast 568k (vs. 430k expected), while the weekly initial jobless claims out yesterday for the week through October 2 were beneath expectations at 326k (vs. 348k expected)."
In corporate news, Royal Mail said it had bought Canadian logistics company Mid-Nite Sun Transportation for CAD$360m (£210.5m).
Mid-Nite Sun is one of the largest independent freight carriers in Western Canada that operates as Rosenau Transport, Royal Mail said, adding the deal was being done via its General Logistics Systems unit (GLS).
The acquisition will be funded through existing cash and borrowing facilities and is expected to be earnings and cash flow accretive to GLS and Royal Mail Group in the current financial year ended 31 March 2022.