Spirent flags lower revenue, AstraZeneca's Calquence gets US approval
By Josh White
Date: Friday 17 Jan 2025
(Sharecast News) - London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to open 75 points higher on Friday, having closed up 1.09% on Thursday at 8,391.90.
Stocks to watch
Automated testing company Spirent Communications said it expected full-year revenues to be lower after a "challenging" year, but reported a strong uptick of order growth in the fourth quarter. Revenue growth in the fourth quarter and second half of the year was 5%, resulting in full year revenue of around $460m, compared to $474m in 2023, the company said on Friday.
AstraZeneca has announced that its Calquence drug has been approved in the US when used alongside chemoimmunotherapy for patients with previously untreated mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). Calquence (otherwise known as acalabrutinib), is now the first and only BTK inhibitor - drugs which block activity of the Bruton's tyrosine kinase enzyme - approved for the first-line treatment of MCL in the country.
Newspaper round-up
Rachel Reeves's tax raid on employers will push up the price of a pint, the boss of pub chain Young's has warned. Simon Dodd, the chief executive, said Young's plans to increase prices between 3pc and 3.5pc because of the increased cost of National Insurance (NI) contributions paid by employers, which comes into effect from April. - Telegraph
Nissan is to open a £50m factory making transmissions for its electric cars at a site previously used as a Nightingale hospital during Covid. A 140,000sq ft facility next to the carmaker's sprawling Sunderland plant will produce transmissions for three models as Nissan seeks to boost electric vehicle (EV) production and fend off competition from Chinese rivals. - Telegraph
Millions of consumers will be protected from "nasty surprises" from Friday as new rules take effect that mean telecoms firms must tell people upfront - in "pounds and pence" - about any future price rises. It means mobile phone, broadband and pay-TV companies are now banned from imposing mid-contract price increases linked to unknown future rates of inflation. - Guardian
SpaceX launched its Starship rocket on its latest test flight Thursday, but the spacecraft was destroyed following a thrilling booster catch back at the pad. Elon Musk's company said the spacecraft's six engines appeared to shut down one by one, with contact lost just 8min 30sec into the flight. - Guardian
Trade conflicts threaten to strengthen inflation and keep interest rates high this year while stalling growth among the world's poorest nations will hamper efforts to reduce poverty, World Bank researchers have said. Global economic growth has slowed to such an extent that it "will be insufficient to foster sustained economic development" in the coming decades, the World Bank warned in its latest forecasts. - The Times
US close
Wall Street stocks were in the red at the close of trading on Thursday as Q4 earnings season began to pick up steam.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.16% at 43,153.13, while the S&P 500 lost 0.21% to 5,937.34 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.89% weaker at 19,338.29.
The Dow closed 68.42 points lower on Thursday, taking a small bite out of strong gains recorded in the previous session following the release of last month's tamer-than-expected consumer price index and solid Q4 bank earnings.
Thursday's primary focus was another batch of quarterly earnings from the nation's largest names in banking.
Morgan Stanley reported that profits had more than doubled on the back of a solid dealmaking performance, while Bank of America reported results that topped expectations on both the top and bottom lines thanks to better-than-expected investment banking and interest income.
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