He says yesterday’s tale of the tape was that “risk was under pressure” as US CPI inflation rose and President Trump issued threats to Tehran for being too slow to make a deal.

Later today comes US PPI inflation, which a month ago sparked a move in bond markets as it brought “the first realisation that the next move from the Fed is to hike, as long as the labour market stays strong (which Friday’s data supported)”.  

9.11am: Frasers bids for Boss

Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group fell 2.5% in early trade but is back to flat after making a $2.3 billion takeover offer for Hugo Boss.

Frasers, which is a 26% shareholder, has made an approach for the German fashion label at €38 a share.

This is the equivalent to a 4.3% premium to yesterday’s closing price.

Boss shares have climbed 6.9% to a premium to the offer price at €38.98.

This suggests that “investors believe an improved offer or a rival bid could emerge with the former of the two looking more likely”, says Victoria Scholar at ii.

“Frasers Group has a long history of building up stakes in struggling retailers over time, with several UK acquisitions bought out of administration.

“Hugo Boss’s share price has declined in recent years, down almost 50% from its 2023 highs, suffering since the post-pandemic boom.

“However the difference this time is that Hugo Boss is a German brand, with a strong global reputation that has been delivering improved results lately thanks to a fruitful turnaround plan, although sales and profits still fell in the first quarter highlighting how there is still a lot of work to do.”

8.43am: Wizz climbs

Wizz Air shares are up 2.7% as results for the year to March were in line with its most recent guidance.

They were “marginally ahead of potentially stale consensus”, says Gerald Khoo at Panmure Liberum, with €1.3 million of profit after tax down 99.4% but better than the consensus forecast for around a €50 million loss.

Management giving limited guidance reflects the geopolitical uncertainties, Khoo notes, adding that capacity growth is still set to accelerate but unit revenues are under pressure and unit costs are set to rise.

Non-fuel CASK (cost per available seak kilometre) is guided to between flat and up by a low single digits in the first half, with fuel hedging increased but with dramatically higher spot prices for the balance.

“In our view, this points to a margin squeeze in H1, which is the seasonally profitable half of the year for the group,” Khoo says, also flagging a balance sheet that still is not yet comfortable.

Net debt/EBITDA is at 3.7x, “albeit better than the 4.4x from a year ago”, with gross cash €2.1 billion, “but Wizz Air has no further depth to its balance sheet with no unencumbered aircraft assets and no undrawn credit facilities”.

8.26am: Halma plunges

Halma’s revenues and profits came in ahead of expectations, so why this reaction from the market, with the shares down over 11%?

The answer is probably valuation rather than performance, with the shares having risen around 32% since the start of the year before today.

Analyst Alex da Silva O’Hanlon at Panmure Liberum also notes that Halma trades on around 36 times 2027 earnings, versus a sector average of 22 times, so leaving little room for disappointment even if he thinks it “remains justified”.

He says management’s guidance for “low double-digit” organic revenue growth in the 2027 financial year should even drive modest upgrades to consensus forecasts, while margins are expected to remain at the strong 22.7% level achieved in the past year.

However, investors may also be focusing on what analysts call “concentration risk” in the fast-growing photonics business, which serves the data centre industry. Revenue from a single photonics customer rose from 15% to 20% of group sales during the year.

8.15am: FTSE 100 surprises by starting higher

The FTSE 100 has opened higher, lifted by gains for China-focused financials, miners and utilities.

In opening trades, the London benchmark has inched up 30 points to 10,287.

Asia-focused Prudential, Standard Chartered and HSBC are three of the top-four on the leaderboard, up 3.2% to 2.3%.

Intertek is up 3% after private equity firm EQT was allowed to extend its put-up-or-shut-up deadline to come up with a firm offer.

 

Other risers include utilities Airtel, Vodafone and Centrica, while commodities-related names are also bid, including Fresnillo, Rio Tinto, Anglo American, BP and Shell.

Halma has dropped sharply, down 11.7%.

 

7.59am: Wizz profits collapse

Wizz Air has reported a total collapse in profits after aircraft groundings, higher costs and disruption in the Middle East offset record passenger growth.

Net profit slumped to just €1.3 million in the year to 31 March from €213.9 million in the previous year, while operating profit fell 17% to €139.7 million.

This was despite the low-cost airline carrying 10% more passengers and revenue rising 8% to €5.69 billion.

Despite a positive start to the new financial year, following a redeployment of capacity to core Central and Eastern European markets, Wizz has declined to provide full-year guidance, citing uncertainty surrounding the conflict with Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

7.40am: Halma hikes dividend, but less than expected

Halma lifted its dividend 7% to continue its run of successive hikes to a 47th year, though the amount was below analyst forecasts.

The provider of safety, environmental and healthcare technologies reported revenue of £2.58 billion in the year to March, up 15% from the previous year and ahead of the £2.56 billion City consensus.

Adjusted earnings before interest and tax jumped 22% to £594.5 million, well ahead of the £567.9 million average estimate.

Looking ahead, the board says the company “made a positive start to the 2027 financial year, with a strong order book and order intake ahead of revenue and last year”.

FTSE 100 pre-market open

Stocks in London and mainland Europe are expected to open lower on Thursday as energy prices reared their ugly head again, while later in the day SpaceX is likely to grab attention.

The FTSE 100 has been called 33 points lower, after battling back from a sim ilar position yesterday to close roughly 27.5 points higher at 10,254.81.

On Wall Street overnight, stocks suffered a steep selloff after inflation data came at a three-year high and renewed geopolitical tensions in the Middle East dashed hopes of prices easing soon.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq and the blue-chip Dow Jones both fell sharply, down 2% and 1.9% respectively, while the S&P 500 dropped 1.6%.

This morning, Asian stocks are mixed, with Chinese markets in red, but others just above flat.

Brent crude oil topped $95 a barrel overnight, but has eased back to $93.85 this morning despite the US having launched further airstrikes on Iran in the early hours, following Donald Trump’s warning that Tehran would “pay the price” for the slow pace of negotiations.

Iran directed retaliatory strikes towards Bahrain, where the US Navy fleet is based, as well as Kuwait and Jordan.

As for SpaceX, demand is reported to be strong, with the IPO oversubscribed more than four times. Today, with the price already set at $135 a share, the retail allocation and broker allocations are due to be sorted.

The company said it would stop taking orders yesterday to allow time for share allocation today, according to CNN, with a higher-than-usual retail allocation of 30% planned.