7.22am: Rolls-Royce names BP exec as new CFO
Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (LSE:RR.) has rejigged its leadership team as new boss Tufan Erginbilgic continues his transformation of the engineering company.
The headline news is a new CFO with Helen McCabe joining later this year from BP where she is currently senior vice president, Finance for the Customer & Products division running a business with reported EBITDA of US$13.7bn last year.
She also holds accountabilities for BP’s global refining portfolio.
Erginbilgic, also a former BP exec, said: “I have experienced her abilities first-hand and her skillset will complement the existing capabilities of the Executive Team.”
Panos Kakoullis will remain as CFO until at least 31 August 2023.
7.13am: UK economy grows 0.1% in Q4
The UK economy grew marginally in quarter four according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.
Gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated to have increased by 0.1% between October and December, revised from a first estimate of no growth.
In output terms, the services sector grew by 0.1% and the construction sector grew by 1.3%, while the production sector growth was flat in quarter 4 2022.
The level of real GDP in quarter 4 is now estimated to be 0.6% below where it was pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) at quarter 4 2019, revised upwards from the previous estimate of 0.8% below.
The GDP implied deflator rose by an upwardly revised 7.3% in the year to Quarter 4 2022, primarily reflecting higher cost pressures faced by households.
The household saving ratio increased to 9.3% in Quarter 4 2022, from 8.9% in the previous quarter.
Real households’ disposable income (RHDI) increased by 1.3% this quarter after four consecutive quarters of negative growth.
7.00am: FTSE 100 seen flat
The FTSE 100 is expected to open flat on Friday ahead of a key US inflation report later today.
Michael Hewson at CMC said: “As we bring down the curtain on Q3 we also have the latest US core PCE inflation numbers for February, and here the Federal Reserve will be hoping that there are signs that inflation is cooling here as well after the surprise spike to 4.7% in the January numbers, which prompted a sharp spike in US rate hike expectations just prior to the meltdown that we saw at the beginning of this month.”
“The jump higher in PCE core deflator also happened to coincide with a surge in January personal spending, which rose 1.8%.”
Ahead of that Friday’s economic calendar has a eurozone inflation reading, UK GDP data and a house price index reading from mortgage lender Nationwide.
In the US stocks made further progress on Thursday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 141.43 points, or 0.4%, at 32,859.03. The S&P 500 gained 23.02 points, or 0.6%, at 4,050.83 and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 87.24 points, 0.7%, to 12,013.47.
In Asia on Friday, the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo was up 1.0%. the Shanghai Composite firmed 0.3% and the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong gained 0.6%.
Back in London and the early focus will be results from Computacenter while Mothercare is set to release a trading statement.