Anglo American sees diamond market rebalancing, Indivior strikes deal with Actavis

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 81 points higher on Wednesday, having closed up 0.31% on Tuesday at 7,638.03.

Stocks to watch

Anglo American has said it is finally seeing signs of a rebalancing in the diamond market after De Beers' final tender of the year saw a pick-up in revenues, after a huge slide in sales over 2023. The value of rough diamond sales from its 10th sales cycle of 2023 amounted to $130m, up from $86m in cycle nine and $80m in cycle eight. However, that still remains more than two thirds lower than the $417m generated in the 10th sales cycle of 2022.

Indivior announced a settlement with Actavis Laboratories UT on Wednesday, to resolve patent disputes related to Actavis's generic buprenorphine and naloxone sublingual film. The agreement grants Actavis a licence to Indivior’s US patent, allowing it to launch the generic film products specified in their Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) in the US after 31 January 2025, unless the patent claims were invalidated or unenforceable through a final judicial decision before then.

Newspaper round-up

Northern political and transport leaders have called on the UK government to urgently review Avanti West Coast’s operations amid a renewed surge in intercity rail cancellations and delays. The intervention came as it emerged that morale at the train operating company has plummeted to the point where only 3% of staff say they feel valued, according to an internal Avanti survey seen by the Guardian. – Guardian

Almost two-thirds of British exporters have said selling to the EU has become harder in the past year, according to the British Chambers of Commerce, which is calling on the government to do more to smooth trade frictions post-Brexit. Three years on from Boris Johnson signing the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) with the EU, the small businesses which make up much of the BCC’s membership are still struggling to negotiate trade barriers. – Guardian

The chief executive and owner of Arm met Jeremy Hunt in Downing Street on Tuesday as regulators unveiled reforms that could encourage the semiconductor giant to pursue a secondary listing in London. Rene Haas, the chief executive of the Cambridge microchip designer, and Masayoshi Son, the head of its majority shareholder SoftBank, were seen leaving Number 11 on Tuesday morning. – Telegraph

Journalists at the Financial Times are demanding a minimum starting salary of $80,000 (£63,000) in a dispute over pay. The newspaper’s American union is locked in discussions with bosses amid concerns that current wages are not “anywhere close” to livable. Under current plans, the FT’s US-based staff have been offered a minimum wage of $60,000. - Telegraph

Pressure is mounting on the deputy prime minister to intervene on national security grounds in the Abu Dhabi-backed bid to buy the Telegraph newspapers. Conservative MPs have demanded that Oliver Dowden use the National Security and Investment Act to investigate the United Arab Emirates’ takeover. However, it is understood that the Cabinet Office is not expected to issue a call-in notice on the acquisition imminently, despite an American intervention in a UAE purchase of Fortress Investment Group, of the United States. – The Times

US close

The Dow Jones rose to another all-time high on Tuesday, while the S&P 500 neared record territory, as rate-cut hopes continued to fuel an end-of-year rally on Wall Street.

The Dow finished 0.68% higher at a new high of 37,557.92, its fifth straight record close in a row; the Nasdaq gained 0.66% to 15,003.22; while the S&P 500 rose 0.59% to 4,768.37, just 31 points off its 4,796.56 peak reached in January 2022.

The S&P 500 has now gained 2.6% since last Wednesday's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in which the so-called dot plot graph showed policymakers were projecting rate cuts of 0.75 percentage points throughout 2024.

However, central bankers are continuing to deliver mixed messages to the market.

New York Fed president John Williams and Atlanta Fed head Raphael Bostic have both come out since last week's FOMC meeting to say that it is too soon to talk about rate cuts, while San Francisco Fed president Mary Daly said her own expectations for rates were "very close" to the dotplot graph released last week, which signalled three rate cuts in 2024.