London pre-open: Stocks to drop on US-Iran worries, tech selloff

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to fall at the open on Friday amid renewed concerns about relations between the US and Iran after the latter reportedly attacked a cargo ship near Oman, and as the tech selloff continued.

The FTSE 100 was called to open around 60 points lower.

The attack on the cargo ship "prompted the UN maritime efforts to pause its Strait of Hormuz escort operation and has raised doubts over a preliminary deal to end the US-Iran war," Danske Bank said.

"Iran's Persian Gulf Strait Authority warned that ships outside its designated routes travel at their own risk, while shipping data showed crude flows through Hormuz have risen to their highest level since the war began."

Meanwhile, on Wall Street and in Asia the tech selloff continued, with Apple under the cosh after it hiked prices on iPads and MacBooks, citing rising memory and storage chip costs.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, said: "Apple tanked more than 6% as investors feared that the higher prices would reduce demand and may not offset the squeeze on profit margins. Other device makers like Dell, HP and Lenovo lost between 4% and 5%, while Samsung is down by more than 8% today, on worries that the massive rise in chip prices will eventually hit a wall.

"As such, the Korean Kospi index is having one of those days: an 8% fall at the index level, a halted trading session and unbelievably high volatility.

"Over in Japan, the Nikkei is down by more than 3% on the back of souring tech sentiment. SoftBank - a proxy for the AI trade - is down 13% on the Apple news and reports that OpenAI is looking to delay its upcoming IPO, possibly due to shaken confidence in mega AI IPOs following SpaceX's post-listing struggles, while CEO Sam Altman reportedly remains unwilling to accept a valuation below $1 trillion. Apple suppliers are also feeling the heat today."

UK corporate news was scarce, but pensions and insurance consulting & administration business XPS Group said it had bought the trade and assets of Austin Professional Resourcing, a UK-based specialist actuarial consultancy, for �3.3m in cash on completion. There is a further �10m payable in years two and three, contingent on achieving certain stretching business performance criteria.

Residential property developer Barratt Redrow announced that Dean Banks will take over as chief executive officer with effect from 21 September. Banks will succeed David Thomas, who will retire after 11 years as group CEO and 17 years with the firm.