Legal & General posts flat profit, Rightmove looking internally for new CFO
London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to open 87 points higher on Wednesday, having closed up 0.23% on Tuesday at 8,026.69.
Stocks to watch
Financial services and asset management group Legal and General on Wednesday reported flat interim core operating profit, in line with expectations. The company said profit for the half rose 1% to £849m, adding that it expected 2024 core operating earnings to grow by mid-single digits year-on-year. It also lifted its interim dividend by 5% to 6p a share.
Property portal Rightmove has announced that it is recruiting an internal replacement for its outgoing chief financial officer. Alison Dolan, who announced in May she was jumping ship to join Marks & Spencer, will be succeeded by Ruaridh Hook, currently head of commercial finance and financial planning and analysis. Hook, who has been in that role since 2020, joined Rightmove back in 2016.
Newspaper round-up
The Royal Mint has unveiled a “pioneering” factory that will recover gold from electronic waste, creating a more sustainable source of the precious metal for the coin manufacturer’s luxury jewellery line. The factory in south Wales, which has been under construction since March 2022, is designed to extract gold from up to 4,000 tonnes a year of circuit boards sourced in the UK from electronics including phones, laptops and TVs. – Guardian
The vacation rental company Airbnb forecast third-quarter revenue below Wall Street estimates on Tuesday and reported a lower second-quarter profit, as it flagged weakening demand from US customers. Shares of the company were down about 12% after the bell. Domestic travel in the United States has been pressured since the start of the year as more Americans grow cautious about travel spending amid growing economic uncertainty. – Guardian
Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic has been banned from describing its green jet fuel as “sustainable” after it was accused of “misleading” customers during an advertising campaign. In a ruling on Tuesday, Virgin was found to have breached rules while advertising its first-ever transatlantic service powered by so-called sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). – Telegraph
The Titanic shipbuilder Harland & Wolff has been plunged deeper into crisis after the Falkland Islands withdrew from £120m contract talks. The Belfast-based company had previously been chosen as the preferred candidate to build a new floating dock for the British overseas territory. But on Tuesday it revealed the Falkland Islands government (FIG) had “decided to cease further contractual negotiations”. – Telegraph
The value of Old Master paintings, statues and other objets d’art owned by the FTSE 250 investment trust RIT Capital has inadvertently come to light as a result of their reclassification in its latest accounts. RIT-owned objects housed in Spencer House, a sumptuous palace in the St James’s district of London, where the managers of the trust work, are now believed to be valued at around £3.5 million. – The Times
US close
Wall Street stocks closed higher on Tuesday as major indices bounced back from heavy losses recorded across global markets a day earlier.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.76% at 38,997.66, while the S&P 500 advanced 1.04% to 5,240.03 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.03% firmer at 16,366.85.
The Dow closed 294.39 points higher on Tuesday, reclaiming some of the heavy losses recorded in the previous session.
The blue-chip Dow Jones shed more than 1,000 points on Monday, while the S&P 500 turned in its worst daily performance since 2022, with most market participants viewing the sell-off as being long overdue amidst high valuations and new records, with some analysts also warning that it may not be done just yet either.
Giving sentiment a boost on Tuesday, however, was a rebound in Japanese stocks, with the Nikkei 225 posting its best day since October 2008, surging 10.2%, following the benchmark's worst day since 1987, in which it closed 12.4% lower.