Dunelm set to beat expectations, Marshalls trades in line

London open

The FTSE 100 was set to open 38 points lower on Thursday, at 7,792.

Stocks to watch

Homewares retailer Dunelm said it expected annual profits to be above expectations as consumers sought value for money amid the cost of living crisis. The company on Thursday said second-quarter sales were up 18% year on year, with customers flocking to buy items such as heated indoor airers to mitigate soaring energy costs.

Landscaping and building supplies provider Marshalls said it expected to deliver full-year profits in line with expectations despite weaker market conditions in the final quarter as inflation started to hit sales. The company said group revenue for the year to end-December came in at £719m. Like-for-like sales rose 1% over the period, including the Marley roofing products business, acquired last year, they were up 22%.

Mr Kipling and Oxo owner Premier Foods said on Thursday that it was "well on track" to deliver full-year expectations after a strong third quarter. In an update for the 13 weeks to the end of December, the company said sales rose 12% versus the same period a year earlier, with branded sales up 8.8%. It saw a particularly strong performance in the grocery business, where sales increased 17.4%, and with demand especially buoyant in the run-up to Christmas.

Newspaper round-up

Prices for package holidays and flights to popular destinations have soared in the last year, according to research. A week-long trip to Greece costs about 30% more than it did last year, with holidays in Italy, Spain and Turkey up by a fifth or more. The sobering figures, from the consumer group Which?, could cause a rethink for those planning to escape the cost of living pressure with a holiday getaway.- Guardian

Qinetiq, the UK defence contractor, has signed a deal to help Australia develop a laser weapon to help it counter missile threats. The firm is already spearheading a plan to develop a hypersonic missile-killing directed energy weapon in the UK called Dragonfire, with partners including Leonardo UK and missile company MBDA. – Telegraph

Global investors are shunning Britain because the Government has no coherent economic plan and is failing to keep up with volcanic policy changes in the US and Europe, the head of British industry has warned. “Money is leaving the UK. Investors are freezing up and the heart of the problem is that we don’t have a strategy,” said Tony Danker, director-general of Confederation of British Industry (CBI). – Telegraph

Tesla boss Elon Musk “lied” when he said that funding was “secured” to take the company private, a lawyer for Tesla investors said yesterday, as an attorney for Musk argued that the billionaire merely used the “wrong words” when he tweeted about his plans in 2018. Tesla investor Glen Littleton is seeking damages on behalf of shareholders who traded the company’s stock in the days after Musk posted his plan to take the company private on Twitter in August 2018. – The Times

British boardrooms have been warned to brace for a further wave of investor activism after a record number of new campaigns at European companies propelled global activity by corporate raiders to its highest level since 2018. A report released yesterday by Lazard, the boutique investment bank, showed there were 235 new initiatives started by activist shareholders around the world last year, a 36 per cent increase on 2021 and a resurgence after three years of falling interventions. – The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks closed well below the waterline on Wednesday, with the Dow tumbling more than 600 points, as traders digested some key economic data.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.81% at 33,296.96, as the S&P 500 lost 1.56% to 3,928.86 and the Nasdaq Composite was 1.24% weaker at 10,957.01.

The Dow closed 613.89 points lower on Wednesday, significantly extending the losses it recorded on Tuesday.

Market participants were primarily focussed on the latest producer price index, which revealed wholesale prices undershot market expectations by a wide margin at the end of 2022.

According to the Department of Labor, final demand prices fell at a seasonally adjusted month-on-month pace of 0.5% in December.