London pre-open: Stocks to fall; retailers in focus

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to fall at the open on Thursday amid ongoing geopolitical tensions and concerns about US President Donald Trump's plans for Greenland, with retailers in focus following a flurry of updates.

The FTSE 100 was called to open around 45 points lower.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, said: "Beyond oil, the Venezuelan developments are highly unusual. The US intervening directly, removing a country's leadership and seizing access to natural resources would mark a major escalation.

"It raises uncomfortable questions about who could be next - Colombia, Greenland, Canada - all regions Trump has previously targeted either for their natural resources, strategic positioning, or both. We may yet regret last year's trade war."

In corporate news, Associated British Foods cut its profit outlook due to a weaker performances at its Primark retail chain and US foods operations in the 16 weeks to 3 January.

The conglomerate said Primark's sales growth in the period was below previous expectations and it now expected sales growth in the first half of 2026 to be in the low single digits.

"We now expect group adjusted operating profit and adjusted EPS to be below last year," AB Foods said in a trading statement.

Marks & Spencer left its full-year guidance unchanged after what it called "solid" Christmas trading.

The high street bellwether saw like-for-like food sales rise 5.6% in the 13 weeks to 27 December, to �2.72bn.

That helped offset a 2.9% decline in fashion, home and beauty, to �1.27bn. The division is continuing to recover from a major cyberattack earlier in 2025.

Overall, total group sales - which include Ocado Retail - rose 24.2% to �4.99bn, or by 3.3% to �4.15bn once the online grocer was stripped out.

Greggs said it was on track to meet full-year expectations as it posted a jump in fourth-quarter sales.

The bakery chain said Q4 total sales rose 7.4% on the year, with like-for-like sales in company-managed shops up 2.9%.

Chief executive Roisin Currie said: "We made good progress in 2025, in a challenging year where subdued consumer confidence impacted the food-to-go market. Against this backdrop, I'm pleased that Greggs outperformed the wider market and increased its market share of visits."

Tesco said it expects full-year earnings to be at the top end of forecasts despite a slowdown in underlying sales growth over the key Christmas selling season.

Group like-for-like sales were up 2.4% over the six weeks to 3 January, easing from the 3.1% growth seen over the third quarter to 22 November and the 4.6% jump registered in the second quarter. Nevertheless, annual adjusted operating profit is now being tipped to come in at the upper end of its �2.9bn to �3.1bn guidance range.