Wood Group holds annual guidance, Rolls-Royce does same

London open

The FTSE 100 was set to open four points higher on Thursday, having closed down 0.41% on Wednesday at 7,732.09.

Stocks to watch

Oil and gas engineer Wood Group, currently in talks on a potential $1.6bn takeover by private equity group Apollo, held annual guidance as first quarter revenues increased. The company on Thursday said revenue rose to around $1.45bn, reflecting good momentum across all business units. Group adjusted core earnings were in line with expectations. Its order book at March 31 was around $5.7bn, slightly lower than at December 2022 and reflecting the phasing of large multi-year awards in operations, Wood said.

UK aerospace engineer Rolls-Royce held annual guidance and said large engine flying hours had hit 83% of 2019 levels in the four months to April 30. In a trading statement ahead of its annual shareholders meeting, Rolls said it was on track for the 80% to 90% flying hours range for the full year, as guided in February.

Newspaper round-up

Rishi Sunak is at risk of missing his flagship target to halve inflation this year, one of Britain’s leading economic forecasters has warned, as households are left thousands of pounds worse off amid the cost of living crisis. Sounding the alarm over the hit to living standards, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research said the soaring price of food and other basic essentials meant inflation was on track to remain persistently high for the rest of this year. – Guardian

The Post Office is facing a government investigation after paying bonuses to executives for supplying evidence to the public inquiry into the Horizon computer system scandal. Kevin Hollinrake, the business minister, has demanded an "immediate explanation" from the Post Office after parts of chief executive Nick Read’s £450,000 bonus were linked to providing "all required evidence and information on time". – Telegraph

Britain's bloated public sector is nearly twice as large as official figures suggest, economists have said, after the Tories failed to stem its relentless growth over the past 13 years. Analysis by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (Niesr) suggests that around 10.6m people are employed by the state – far more than the 5.7m typically cited by the Government. – Telegraph

Shares in Carl Icahn’s conglomerate fell sharply after it revealed that federal prosecutors had been in touch to request information a day after a short-seller alleged that it was operating a “Ponzi-like economic structure”. The veteran American activist investor has forcefully pushed back against the report from Hindenburg Research, pledging to “vigorously defend” his business and branding the criticism “fundamentally flawed”. – The Times

About 1.6 million households and businesses were paid a total of almost £11 million under a scheme that rewarded them for cutting their power usage at peak times last winter. National Grid, the company responsible for keeping the nation’s lights on, said the energy savings under the “demand flexibility service” were equivalent to the amount of electricity needed to supply about 10 million homes for an hour. – The Times

US close

Stocks on Wall Street finished in a mixed state on Wednesday, with the Dow and the tech-heavy Nasdaq both recording losses, while the S&P 500 ended higher after the latest inflation figures were released.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.22% to close at 33,487.87, while the S&P 500 rose 0.24% to end at 4,129.20.

By the end of trading, the Nasdaq Composite was the biggest loser, declining 0.63% to finish at 12,179.55.

Investors were thumbing through the latest consumer inflation data, which showed prices rising at their slowest pace in two years.

The consumer price index (CPI) print had been eagerly awaited by market participants for clues on the Federal Reserve's next interest rate move.