London stocks were set to fall at the open on Wednesday following a mostly downbeat session on Wall Street.
The FTSE 100 was called to open 25 points lower at 7,124.
CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: “It was notable that while we saw the Dow and S&P500 slip back yesterday, the Nasdaq outperformed, finishing higher on the day, while the US dollar moved higher.
“The slide in US stocks and a mixed Asia session looks set to translate into a weaker European open this morning, although the Nikkei 225 has maintained its resilience moving above the 30,000 level for the first time since April.
“With Friday’s disappointing August payrolls report still fresh in the memory, today’s JOLTS report for July will be a timely reminder that the jobs market still has a long way to go before normalising.”
In corporate news, homewares retailer Dunelm said 2022 full-year profits would be “modestly” ahead of expectations as it posted a strong rise in 2021 earnings, driven by online sales during the Covid pandemic.
Pre-tax profit rose 44.6% to £157.8m on a 26.3% rise in sales to £1.33bn. Online revenue made up 46% of the total figure, up 19 percentage points. A special dividend of 65p was also declared.
The company added that it was seeing some industry-wide issues such as ongoing supply chain disruption and inflationary pressures from raw materials, freight costs and driver shortages.
