Markets opened up positively in the early trading session thanks to the rise in European energy stocks on the back of the rise of oil prices after a potential output freeze agreement maybe on the horizon.
UK News
Glencore (LON:GLEN) is negotiating the sale of a stake in its agricultural business to Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, reported the Wall Street Journal citing sources familiar with the situation.
EasyJet (LON:EZJ) reported that passenger traffic rose 4.3% YoY to 5.73M earned seats flown in March with the passenger load factor declining 1.3 percentage points to 91.3%.
The British government opened talks on Tuesday with potential buyers for Tata Steel's (NS:TISC) UK operations, including Sanjeev Gupta’s commodities company Liberty Group, as it stepped up its battle to find a buyer for the loss-making business
Barclays (LON:BARC) has become the first big British bank to form a partnership with a digital currency firm, social payments app Circle, which runs partly on bitcoin’s blockchain network and launched in the UK on Wednesday.
Global News
In Asia stocks held near three-week lows on Wednesday as concerns about the underlying strength of the Chinese economy grew while oil prices jumped by nearly two percent on growing hopes a global output freeze may materalize soon. The Nikkei index rose 0.3% to end the morning session at 15,777.13.
Crude futures rose on Wednesday as hopes for an agreement among exporters to freeze output underpinned the market, although a persistent global oversupply and Iran’s plans to boost production pressured physical oil prices. U.S. crude futures rose around 2.8%, to $36.87 per barrel. International Brent futures rose 1.8% at $38.55 a barrel. Oil futures recovered from one-month lows to end up in the previous session after the Kuwaiti governor for the OPEC, Nawal Al-Fuzaia, said there were “positive indications an agreement will be reached” on output during a producer meeting scheduled for April 17 in Qatar.
U.S. stocks fell sharply on Tuesday as investors took gains off the table following a recent rally and ahead of an upcoming quarterly reporting season that is expected to reveal sharply lower earnings. The S&P 500 lost 20.96 points to 2,045.17. Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) lost 2.04%. Allergan (NYSE:AGN) shares fell 14.77% after the U.S. Treasury unveiled rules to curb tax inversion deals, potentially derailing the drug maker’s merger with Pfizer (NYSE:PFE). Pfizer climbed 2.1%.
Economic Calendar
15:30 GMT+1 US Crude Oil Inventories
17:20 GMT+1 US FOMC Member Mester Speaks
19:00 GMT+1 US FOMC Meeting Minutes
23:30 GMT+1 US FOMC Member Bullard Speaks
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