London pre-open: Stocks seen steady amid earnings avalanche

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set for a steady open on Thursday as investors mulled the latest policy announcement from the US Federal Reserve and braced for another barrage of corporate news.

The FTSE 100 was called to open flat at 9,134.

The Fed kept the target range for the federal funds rate unchanged on Wednesday at between 4.25% and 4.50%, as widely expected.

Rabobank said: "Powell's press conference has increased our confidence that we are going to see only one rate cut this year, but it has decreased our confidence that it will be in September. However, for now this will remain our base case. The risk to a later cut has increased though. It will all depend on the incoming data between now and the September meeting.

"Looking ahead to next year, we expect the Fed to accelerate the cutting cycle as Trump's impact on monetary policy is set to increase as today's dissenters Waller and Bowman are likely joined by two additional Trump-loyalists on the Board of Governors."

Investors will also be digesting better-than-expected results overnight from Microsoft and Facebook owner Meta.

Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "Meta has knocked it out of the park. Pick your metric and Meta crushed it, from ad revenue growth to daily users, all the way down to the profit lines. AI is clearly delivering real-world benefits for advertisers, and they're willing to pay more as a result. Average price per ad was up 9% over the quarter, a clear indication that Meta is delivering an improved product for both users and advertisers."

In UK corporate news, US-based Brookfield Wealth Solutions has agreed a �2.4bn deal to buy UK financial services company Just Group, the two firms said.

BWS will pay 220p a share in cash, a 75% premium to the Just closing price of 126p on 30 July.

Aerospace and defence engineer Rolls-Royce raised its full-year guidance after a strong first half, in which underlying revenues grew by double-digits and operating profits surged by 50%.

The company now expects to book a full-year underlying operating profit of �3.1bn-3.2bn for 2025, up from previous guidance of �2.7bn-2.9bn, while the free cash flow target has been upped to �3.0bn-3.1bn from �2.7bn-2.9bn.

Consumer goods giant Unilever reported a 3.4% rise in underlying sales for the first half, driven by balanced volume and price growth, despite turnover dipping 3.2% to �30.1bn due to adverse currency movements and disposals.

Underlying operating profits fell 4.8% to �5.8bn, with margins down 30bps to 19.3%.