LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Equities were expected to start the week slightly lower, weighed down by the mixed close to US trading on Friday, ahead of speeches from several Fed speakers and the latest US non-farm payrolls reports looming large on the horizon.
The Footsie was seen starting the day about 26 points lower from Friday's close of 6,109.01.

As of 07:06 the Shanghai Stock Exchange's Composite Index was falling 0.46% to reach 3,078.08 points.

Three Fed speakers were scheduled to take to the podium today, including the president of the Federal Reserve bank of New York (13:30 BST), the president of the Chicago Fed (at 18:30) and San Francisco Fed chief John Williams at 22:00 BST.

A speech from Fed chair Janet Yellen on 24 September was seen by many market observers as "clearing the air" of doubts regarding the staying power of the US recovery. Nonetheless, remarks from US rate-setters were still likely to be scrutinised by traders.

"Concerns do remain though, not least with respect to the Chinese economy and the continued weakness seen there, along with the slide in the oil price which is starting to clobber the US manufacturing sector. With Fed officials seemingly intent on raising rates this year come what may, there is a fear that the Fed might be on the cusp of making a big mistake," said Michael Hewson, Chief Market Analyst at CMC Markets.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research pushed back its forecast for the first increase in Bank Rate to May or August of 2016 on the back of signs of slowing in the world economy, especially China.

Over the weekend, pro-Independence parties in the Spanish autonomous region of Catalonia won a majority of seats in the regional parliament, but failed to to obtain an absolute majority of the ballots cast.

The latest YouGov poll undertaken for The Times showed that 40% of Britons now back an exit from the European Union, versus the 38% who would rather stay in. As recently as June 2015 the "yes" camp had enjoyed a ten-point lead which appeared to have crumbled under the weight of the recent migrant crisis.

Also on the political front, on Monday Labour's shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, was expected to lay out his blueprint for higher taxes on the rich and corporations as an alternate route for reigning in the public deficit.

Liberty Global and Vodafone call off talks

Vodafone announced on Monday that it is no longer in discussions with Liberty Global regarding a possible exchange of selected assets between the two companies. Vodafone had confirmed on 5 June that it was in the early stages of discussions with Liberty. Liberty, which is owned by cable network Virgin Media and controlled by US billionaire John Malone, had been in talks with Vodafone for several months about the possible combination of their mobile and cable network in European markets, in order to better compete with rivals.

Regus has announced Dominik de Daniel will take over from Dominique Yates as chief financial officer. The FTSE 250 listed company announced Monday de Daniel will also take up the new role of chief operating officer as well as director of the company. De Daniel previously has been the CFO of Adecco Group for nine years where he also successfully led their fast-growing Global Solutions division.

Pennant International's wholly-owned subsidiary, Pennant Training Systems, has been awarded a contract worth in excess of £7m by an unnamed global aerospace and defence contractor which is a new customer for Pennant. AIM-listed Pennant, which supplies integrated logistic support solutions, products and services, said the contract is for the development of computer-based training and electro-mechanical maintenance trainers.

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