Vodafone revenues rise in Q1, AstraZeneca breast cancer asset receives priority review status in the US

London pre-open

The FTSE 100 was being called to open 35.8 points lower ahead of the bell on Monday after closing out the previous session just 0.08% higher at 7,276.37.

Stocks to watch

Vodafone reported a rise in first-quarter revenues on Monday, driven by growth in the UK.

The UK telco giant stated service revenues had increased by 2.5% year-on-year to €9.5bn, despite seeing a fall of 0.5% in Germany throughout the period.

Drugmaker AstraZeneca said on Monday that its Enhertu metastatic breast cancer asset had been granted priority review status in the US following results from its DESTINY-Breast04 trial.

AstraZeneca said on Monday that the Food and Drug Administration had agreed to put Enhertu, developed jointly with Japan's Daiichi Sankyo, under priority review for the treatment of adult patients in the US with unresectable or metastatic HER2-low breast cancer who have received a prior therapy in the metastatic setting.

Newspaper round-up

More than two in five airport workers are considering quitting, research suggests, which could escalate delays already seen at terminals due to low staffing numbers. A survey of 1,700 workers by the UK jobs site CV-Library found reasons for wanting to leave the industry included wanting better pay and less stress. However, only 5% of respondents blamed the current situation at UK airports, where there have been long delays in recent months. – Guardian

Wealthy people in the UK are splashing out on more luxury supercars than ever before, official figures show. More than 18,000 supercars – such as Ferrari, Bugatti, Aston Martin, Maserati and Koenigsegg models – were registered at UK addresses in 2021, a 19% increase on 2020. Prices range from hundreds of thousands to more than £1.0m each, but concerns about the economy and the cost of living crisis for people on more modest incomes has done nothing to dampen enthusiasm for the trophy vehicles. – Guardian

National Grid was forced to issue an emergency appeal to Belgium to keep Britain's lights on as the market was roiled by surging prices ahead of a looming winter crisis. The power network's electricity system operator issued an emergency instruction to operators of the Nemo cable running between Belgium and the UK to make sure supplies were sent to Britain last week, after failing to secure enough in the normal market. – Telegraph

Britain's next prime minister must accelerate the pursuit of trade deals to prevent a further sharp rise in costs as global supply chains are overhauled, according to the country's leading business group. Tony Danker, director-general of the CBI, warned that the West's shift away from countries including Russia and China risked becoming "incredibly expensive" for consumers as companies stopped sourcing goods from the "cheapest and most economically efficient" markets. – The Times

The number of jobs being advertised offering bonuses has more than doubled since the start of last year, as employers seek to fill staff shortages without committing to inflation-proof pay rises. Mounting concerns that the UK is headed into an economic downturn have led companies to contain costs while trying to attract talent amid record levels of vacancies. – The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks closed lower on Friday as a busy week for corporate earnings drew to a close.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.43% at 31,899.29, while the S&P 500 was 0.93% softer at 3,961.63 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.87% weaker at 11,834.11.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com