London open: FTSE flat; Trump expected to nominate Kevin Warsh as Fed chair

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were steady in early trade on Friday as investors mulled solid quarterly results from US tech giant Apple, with US President Donald Trump expected to name former Fed governor Kevin Warsh as his pick for Federal Reserve chair later in the day.

At 0825 GMT, the FTSE 100 was flat at 10,170.63.

Warsh served as Fed governor between 2006 and 2011. According to Polymarket, the world's largest prediction market, there is a 94% chance that he will be nominated.

The US dollar gained amid expectations Warsh will be appointed, while silver and gold prices fell.

Gold futures on Comex were down 3.2% at $5,149.70, while silver was 7.1% lower at $106.29.

Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at Wealth Club, said: "He's a former Fed governor, and while he did have a reputation as being an advocate of tighter monetary policy, earning the 'hawk' moniker, he's recently been publicly advocating for a fresh cut in interest rates, aligned with Trump's thinking.

"However, his experience and past attitude imply he's likely to hold the line if sharp inflationary pressures return."

Market participants were also digesting Apple's first-quarter results, which were released after the bell on Thursday.

Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, said Apple's revenues "easily surpassed" expectations for last quarter, which is traditionally a strong period for the company.

"Revenues were $143.75bn, higher than the $138.39bn expected, this is a record for sales and is a 15.7% increase YoY. Sales were boosted by robust holiday demand for the new iPhone 17. Service sales also reported decent growth of 13.9%. Net income and earnings per share were also significantly higher than expected," she said.

"The outlook is what really matters, and future sales growth is expected to be bolstered by continued strong sales for the iPhone. Supply disruptions have been worked out of the system. Added to this, fears that rising memory prices would depress margins has failed to materialise for Q1."

In equity markets, precious metals miner Fresnillo and gold miners Hochschild and Endeavour all slumped as gold and silver prices fell.

Heavily-weighted mining stocks were in the red, with Glencore, Anglo American and Rio Tinto among the worst performers on the FTSE 100.

Credit-checking firm Experian gained as it announced the launch of a $1bn share buyback programme.

AstraZeneca was little changed after saying it had expanded its weightmanagement pipeline, striking a strategic collaboration with China's CSPC Pharmaceuticals to develop a series of nextgeneration obesity and type2 diabetes therapies.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 10,170.63 -0.01%

FTSE 250 (MCX) 23,301.91 0.10%

techMARK (TASX) 5,875.09 -0.56%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Ashtead Group (AHT) 4,820.00p 2.01%

Experian (EXPN) 2,745.00p 1.86%

NATWEST GROUP (NWG) 662.60p 1.41%

Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,230.00p 1.36%

Barclays (BARC) 485.45p 1.22%

Hiscox Limited (DI) (HSX) 1,513.00p 1.20%

Diageo (DGE) 1,657.50p 1.19%

Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 106.60p 1.09%

Autotrader Group (AUTO) 540.80p 1.05%

Halma (HLMA) 3,574.00p 0.90%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Fresnillo (FRES) 3,748.00p -3.90%

Glencore (GLEN) 491.20p -3.29%

Anglo American (AAL) 3,386.00p -3.26%

Rio Tinto (RIO) 6,685.00p -2.39%

Mondi (MNDI) 861.00p -1.89%

Rentokil Initial (RTO) 451.60p -1.63%

Whitbread (WTB) 2,693.00p -1.57%

GSK (GSK) 1,829.00p -1.24%

3i Group (III) 3,383.00p -1.17%

Croda International (CRDA) 2,698.00p -0.81%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Foresight Group Holdings Limited NPV (FSG) 441.00p 2.92%

Man Group (EMG) 263.60p 1.46%

Utilico Emerging Markets Ltd (DI) (UEM) 289.00p 1.40%

Dr. Martens (DOCS) 68.50p 1.33%

RHI Magnesita N.V. (DI) (RHIM) 2,815.00p 1.26%

Ibstock (IBST) 129.60p 1.25%

Cranswick (CWK) 5,310.00p 1.14%

Carnival (CCL) 2,214.00p 1.10%

WPP (WPP) 299.50p 1.01%

Hilton Food Group (HFG) 460.50p 0.99%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Pan African Resources (PAF) 138.80p -3.61%

Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 1,385.00p -3.55%

BlackRock World Mining Trust (BRWM) 966.00p -3.01%

Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 2,420.00p -3.01%

Ocado Group (OCDO) 217.40p -2.51%

Avon Technologies (AVON) 1,760.00p -1.57%

Zigup (ZIG) 377.50p -1.56%

QinetiQ Group (QQ.) 498.40p -1.40%

Harbour Energy (HBR) 232.40p -1.19%

FirstGroup (FGP) 183.20p -1.13%