Severn Trent makes 'good start' to the year, Anglo American partners with Nippon Steel

London pre-open

The FTSE 100 was being called to open 9.3 points lower ahead of the bell on Thursday after closing out the previous session 0.74% weaker at 7,156.37.

Stocks to watch

Water supply company Severn Trent said on Thursday that it had made "a good start" to the year operationally, with the group now expecting to receive at least £50.0m in outcome delivery incentive outperformance payments in 2023.

Severn Trent added that as expected, it has also seen an increase in operating costs, particularly energy and chemicals, but also noted that it had benefitted from its "decade of investment" into renewable energy generation and generated 145-gigawatt hours of energy in the first quarter - over 50% of its total consumption.

Mining giant Anglo American has partnered with Japan's Nippon Steel to accelerate a transition to lower carbon steelmaking.

Anglo American said on Thursday that the project will also focus on studying the use of its iron ore in a "more carbon-efficient" direct reduction iron steelmaking method, which it estimates will generate "significantly lower emissions" than the standard routes of blast furnaces and basic oxygen furnaces.

Newspaper round-up

The cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network has announced it has filed for bankruptcy. Crypto lending has tumbled in the recent months following a crash in cryptocurrency prices and the collapse of major token TerraUSD in May. Celsius had paused withdrawals and transfers between accounts last month, blaming extreme market conditions. State securities regulators in New Jersey, Texas, and Washington had stepped in to investigate the crypto lender's decision. - Guardian

The railways will grind to a halt again on 27 July as staff stage another national strike in an ongoing dispute over pay, jobs and conditions. As many as 40,000 members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union at train companies and Network Rail will walk out for 24 hours on Wednesday 27 July, with two other rail unions also considering dates for industrial action. - Guardian

The next prime minister will have room to cut taxes without stoking inflation, Britain's fiscal watchdog has said, in a boost for Tory leadership candidates who have pledged to reduce the burden on private industry. Tax cuts are less likely to drive prices higher because an economic slowdown appears to be taking hold, according to David Miles, a member of the Budget Responsibility Committee and a former Bank of England interest rate setter. - Telegraph

Some German households will be forced to heat their homes with wood instead of gas as Russia turns off the taps, according to dire warnings from analysts. Global shortages of gas worsened by Russia's war on Ukraine have sent prices soaring, with many consumers cutting usage in response. - Telegraph

Newly qualified solicitors at a City law firm are to receive an annual salary of £179,000 after a 9% pay rise to take account of sterling weakening against the dollar. Akin Gump, a US corporate practice with a London office, confirmed yesterday that it had boosted the salaries of its newly qualified solicitors by £15,000 from an already record-breaking level after its most recent quarterly review of currency conversion rates. It is expected that others among the group of more than 100 US law firms in the City will follow suit. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks lost ground on Wednesday following a hotter-than-expected inflation reading.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.67% at 30,772.79, while the S&P 500 was 0.45% weaker at 3,801.78 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.15% softer at 11,247.58.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com