FTSE 100 Down More Than 1%

RTTNews | 8h 46min ago

(RTTNews) - U.K. stocks are down firmly in negative territory Thursday morning with investors taking some profits, while reacting to corporate earnings updates and awaiting the European Central Bank's interest rate decision later in the day.

Worries about tariffs have eased slightly for now following the Trump administration deciding to delay car tariffs for Canada and Mexico by a month. Still, uncertainty about Trump's trade and economic policies appear to be weighing a bit on sentiment.

The benchmark FTSE 100, which dropped to 8,645.21, was down 95.10 points or 1.09% at 8,660.74 a little while ago.

Melrose Industries is tanking more than 11% despite the company's earnings for 2024 coming in line with expectations. The company has forecast strong future cash generation.

Rentokil Initial is down 5.6% after reporing a decline in pre-tax income for the full year. For the 12-month period to December 31, 2024, the company posted a profit before tax of 405 million pounds, lesser than 493 million pounds in the previous year. Excluding items, pre-tax income was 703 million pounds, compared with 766 million pounds a year ago.

Marks & Spencer, LondonMetric Property, Compass Group, Informa, 3i, Pearson, Intermediate Capital, Halma, Rio Tinto and Relx are down 2 to 4%.

Experian, HSBC Holdings, Diageo, Diploma, Intercontinental Hotels, Tesco and Segro are also notably lower.

British nutrition products maker Reckitt Benckiser is up 1.8% despite the company reporting lower profit in fiscal 2024, with slight decline in revenues. Looking ahead, for the first quarter, the company expects mid-to-high single digit growth in Emerging Markets, with Europe flat. In North America, the company projects low-single digit growth.

Motor and home insurer Admiral Group is up more than 6% after reporting a 90% jump in annual pre-tax profit.

Endeavour Mining plc is up marginally, after reporting earnings before taxes of $99 million for the fourth quarter compared with loss of $82 million in the same quarter a year ago.

ITV Plc is up 5% after reporting statutory profit before tax of 521 million pounds for twelve months ended 31 December 2024, compared to 193 million pounds, last year.

On the economic front, the UK construction sector registered the sharpest contraction since May 2020 on notable falls in orders and output, survey results from S&P Global showed on Thursday.

The construction Purchasing Managers' Index fell unexpectedly to 44.6 in February from 48.1 in January. The reading was seen at 49.5.

U.S. Trade Deficit Soars To Record High In January

Reflecting a spike by the value of imports, the Commerce Department released a report on Thursday showing the U.S. trade deficit widened by more than expected in the month of January. The Commerce Department said the trade deficit surged to a record high of $131.4 billion in January from a revised $98.1 billion in December.

RTTNews | 5h 8min ago

Bay Street Likely To Open Lower

Lower Canadian and U.S. futures and weak metal prices point to a negative start on Bay Street Thursday morning.

RTTNews | 6h 26min ago

U.S. Trade Deficit Widens More Than Expected In January

Reflecting a spike by the value of imports, the Commerce Department released a report on Thursday showing the U.S. trade deficit widened by more than expected in the month of January.

RTTNews | 6h 31min ago

U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims Dip More Than Expected

With the more closely watched monthly jobs report looming, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits fell by more than expected in the week ended March 3rd.

RTTNews | 6h 35min ago

Eurozone Retail Sales Fall Unexpectedly

Eurozone retail sales declined unexpectedly in January on non-food and auto fuel sales, official data showed on Thursday. Retail sales registered a monthly drop of 0.3 percent, confounding expectations for an increase of 0.1 percent. The statistical office revised up retail sales for December to nil growth from the initial estimate of 0.2 percent fall.

RTTNews | 7h 3min ago

Turkey Central Bank Slashes Rate By 250 Bps

Turkey's central bank lowered its benchmark rate for the third straight time on Thursday as the underlying trend of inflation softened. The Monetary Policy Committee, headed by Yasar Fatih Karahan, decided to reduce the policy rate to 42.5 percent from 45.0 percent, as widely expected. The bank had reduced the rate by 250 basis points each in December and January.

RTTNews | 7h 42min ago

Air France-KLM Stock Climbs On Narrower Q4 Loss, Positive Outlook

Shares of Air France-KLM Group were gaining more than 20 percent in the morning trade in Paris after the airline reported Thursday narrower net loss and significantly higher EBITDA, a key earnings metric, in its fourth quarter amid good growth in passenger traffic, capacity and load factor. Further, the company projects capacity growth in fiscal 2025, and maintained medium term outlook.

RTTNews | 8h 29min ago

CAC Modestly Lower On Profit Taking

After a positive start, the French stock market retreated Thursday morning, and is modestly lower now with investors taking some profits at a few frontline counters.

RTTNews | 9h 23min ago

EURUSD	1.08414	GBPUSD	1.29032	AUDUSD	0.63534
USDJPY	147.861	USDCAD	1.42863	USDCHF	0.88431

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FTSE 100 Down More Than 1%