Trading improving steadily at Ferguson, AstraZeneca gets US approval for COPD treatment

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 71 points lower on Friday, having closed up 0.07% at 6,211.44 on Thursday.

Stocks to watch

Plumbing and heating supplies group Ferguson said trading had improved steadily since the height of coronavirus lockdowns in April. The company on Friday said revenue from continuing operations was down 3.6% for the period from May 1 to April 22, compared with a 15.3% fall in April. Ferguson’s online sales continued to grow well with revenues 30.4% ahead of last year.

AstraZeneca announced on Friday that ‘Breztri Aerosphere’, or budesonide, glycopyrrolate and formoterol fumarate, has been approved in the United States for the maintenance treatment of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The FTSE 100 pharmaceuticals giant said the approval was based on positive results from the phase 3 ‘ETHOS’ trial, in which the triple-combination therapy showed a statistically significant reduction in the rate of moderate or severe exacerbations, compared with dual-combination therapies. It was also supported by efficacy and safety data from the phase 3 ‘KRONOS’ trial.

Newspaper round-up

Warehouse workers at Sports Direct, the retail chain controlled by the billionaire Mike Ashley, appear to be receiving pay below the national minimum wage, according to expert analysis of a new Guardian undercover investigation. The concerns have emerged almost five years after the Guardian first exposed how the retailer was breaching minimum wage law, which resulted in workers receiving about £1m in back pay and Ashley being hauled in front of a parliamentary select committee. – Guardian

Fears of rising redundancies and concerns about the health risks of high street shopping have hit consumer confidence, according to a closely watched survey that flatlined last month. The GfK barometer for July showed confidence petering out, despite rising in May and June. It came as a senior Bank of England policymaker warned Britain’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic would be hampered while concerns about catching the virus and fears of redundancy limited spending. – Guardian

Major supermarkets and coffee chains say they will not enforce new rules which say customers should wear face coverings from Friday. Sainsburys, Asda, Co-op and Costa Coffee are among retailers saying they have no intention of policing the laws, which carry a penalty of a £100 fine. It comes after the Police Federation of England and Wales, which represents rank-and-file officers, said it was "unrealistic and unfair" to expect them to patrol the aisles looking for people breaking the coronavirus regulations. – Telegraph

A new tax on the gain in property values when sold should be introduced to ensure the costs of the coronavirus crisis do not fall unfairly on young people, according to a non-partisan think tank. A report by the Social Market Foundation has said the Treasury should raise £421 billion over the next 25 years by imposing a property capital gains tax on all homes sold in Britain. It suggests that the tax could be set at 10 percent of the increase in the value of the property. – The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks closed lower on Thursday following the release of this week's jobless claims data and some key corporate earnings.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.31% at 26,652.33, while the S&P 500 was 1.23% lower at 3,235.66 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 2.29% weaker at 10,461.42.

The Dow closed 353.51 points lower on Thursday, reversing gains recorded in the previous session despite US-Sino tensions coming back into focus as news of a coronavirus vaccine deal between the White House and pharma groups Pfizer and BioNTech lifted sentiment.

Thursday's main focus was the Labor Department's jobless claims data, which saw initial jobless claims in the US rise modestly and somewhat unexpectedly during the previous week, marking the first increase since March.

Initial claims for the week ending on 18 July rose by 109,000 to reach 1.416m, a far cry from the dip to 1.28m economists had forecast as the reimposition of lockdown measures led to renewed increases.

However, the four-week moving average of initial claims, which aims to smooth out the variations in the data from one week to the next, retreated by 16,500 to 1,360,250. Secondary unemployment claims also retreated by 1.10m to 16.19m over the week ending 11 July.