- FTSE 100 down 22.9 points at 8121.2
- GSK raises outlook, Next beats guidance
- UK manufacturing PMI worsens less than expected
A crude oil sell-off and uncertainty about interest rates ahead of the US central bank decision later fed through to drag the FTSE 100 down from its early gains.
Oil prices fell almost 3%, with Brent at $84.06 and WTI below $80 as Gaza ceasefire talks continue, knocking London heavyweights Shell and BP.
Miners also fell, following a strong April.
By the close, the blue-chip index was down 22.9 points or 0.28% lower at 8,121.24, while the FTSE 250 fell by a similar percent to 19,908.32.
4pm: FTSE falling now
The FTSE 100 is heading further downwards as we approach the close, now down 26.5 points or 0.33% lower at 8,117.62.
Smith & Nephew is no longer top of the leaderboard, its gain has been wiped out, seemingly linked to US rival Stryker (NYSE:SYK) falling 3.3% in New York.
Commodities giants are also dragging more than earlier, with BP down 2%, Antofagasta down 1.8%, Shell 1.5% lower and others also in the red.
Looking to tomorrow, Thursday is another busy results day, including Shell, Melrose, Hiscox, Reach, Smurfit Kappa, Spectris and Standard Chartered.
3.45pm: Fed decision: what to watch out for
The market is now not pricing in the first rate cut from the US Federal Reserve until November, with the September FOMC meeting coming right ahead of the US presidential election, so only one rate cut is expected in 2024, down from around 150 basis points of cuts that had been priced in at the start of the year.
We've had a few preview comments from analysts today. Here's a selection.
John Lynch, chief investment officer for Comerica Wealth in Charlotte, NC, has a short summary: "Yesterday’s late selloff characterized a shift in the market’s mindset from hopes of monetary accommodation to acceptance that higher rates will persist."
Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at City Index, says: "Even before the hawkish repricing of US interest rates in the last few weeks, virtually no one was expecting a rate cut in May. So, the key focus in this meeting will be about how the Fed is assessing the direction of prices and employment."
He notes that previously Fed chief Jerome Powell and co had dismissed the hotter inflation data in the first months of the year, but recently the rhetoric has changed, and has been accompanied by a rally in the US dollar.
"The market is now expecting a more hawkish-leaning FOMC meeting. But any inclination towards a rate cut before the end of the summer would now provide a dovish surprise."
3.37pm: Bitcoin sell-off
Bitcoin flopped 5.9% against the US dollar over the past 24 hours and 14% over the past week, bringing the world’s largest cryptocurrency to a two-month low below $58k.
“The recent downtrend can be attributed to increased profit-taking by investors who entered the market during the downturns of 2022 and 2023, as well as ETF investors who witnessed significant price appreciation on their shares after entering the market in the early weeks of 2024,” said Matteo Greco, research analyst at Fineqia International, in our daily crypto report.
3.10pm: US data not the most helpful
There's been a bit of US data dropping, including two jobs reports - the ADP and JOLTS, and ISM manufacturing and PMI manufacturing indices.
ISM and JOLTS job openings are the most impactful.
Job openings were little changed in March compared with February, with 8.5 million openings at the end of the month, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported, down from 8.8 million vacancies a month earlier.
At 5.5 million, the number of hires "changed little", the report said, while job quitters fell to 3.3 million from 3.5 million, and numbers of jobs axed fell to 1.5 million from 1.68 million.
The US ISM manufacturing index fell to 49.2 for April from 50.3, below the 50.0- estimate. The prices paid index surged to 60.9 from 55.8, also worse than expected.
"The fall in the ISM manufacturing index back below the theoretical 50.0 no-change level in April suggests that the nascent recovery in the manufacturing sector may already have gone into reverse," says Capital Economics' Stephen Brown.
"While the further rise in the prices paid index to a 22-month high looks concerning, that largely reflects the rise in oil prices at the start of the month, which has since been fully reversed."
As for the decline in the JOLTS measure of job openings, Oliver Allen at Pantheon Macroeconomics says it "adds to the growing mosaic of indicators signalling that labor demand is continuing to soften".
The drop in openings was most pronounced among small businesses, which he says suggests means "the decline in hiring plans signalled in the NFIB survey is starting to materialise, with ominous implications for payrolls growth in Q2".
2.58pm: Nervy start for US stocks
It's a similarly wary start to May on Wall Street, with the S&P 500 down 0.2%, the Nasdaq Composite slipping 0.1% but the Dow Jones just above flat.
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is a notable riser, up 2.8% after overnight earnings impressed, led by its AWS cloud services arm.
But its a mixed bag among the other trillion-dollar titans, with Apple and Nvidia falling, offset by Microsoft and Alphabet gaining.
Semiconductor plays AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) and Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ:SMCI) are down 5% and 15% respectively.
The biggest faller in the S&P is CVS Health Corp (NYSE:CVS), down 18% after first-quarter results for the pharmacy group fell short of expectations, with full-year outlook cut due to escalating medical costs impacting the wider US insurance sector.
Starbucks Corp (NASDAQ:SBUX) is down 15% after earnings that were somewhat decaffeinated.
2.46pm: Barclays job cuts
Barclays PLC (LSE:BARC) seems to be cutting hundreds more investment banking jobs, though it may just be a continuation of cuts revealed earlier in the year.
A round of "a few hundred" redundancies is to remove "underperformers" in the investment bank, according to Reuters sources.
This seems to be separate from the bigger cuts the lender announced in February, where it outlined plans for annual cost savings of £2 billion, which was calculated to potentially result in 17,000 job losses.
The investment bank plans to replace these underperforming staff with a new batch of hopeful strivers.
A spokesperson told Retuers the cuts were "difficult, but necessary" as a regular review of the investment banks "talent pool to ensure that we can invest in talent and deliver for clients".
2.15pm: Commodities weigh in London
The FTSE is being held down by falls for oil giants and now miners are also acting as a drag, with copper miner Antofagasta losing 1.2%, BP down 1.1%, Rio Tinto 0.9% and Shell 0.7%.
Bottom of the list are Ashtead, Ocado Group, Haleon and JD Sports Fashion, all down over 2%.
Top of the leaderboard are still Smith & Nephew, up 2.8%, and GSK, up 2.3%. They're followed by BT Group PLC and Severn Trent PLC (LSE:SVT).
Standard Chartered PLC (LSE:STAN), which has results out tomorrow, is not far behind.
US futures are not as gloomy as they were but are still pointing to a broad fall at the opening bell. (Which is important because... see tweet below.)
No surprises here! US equities dominate the global stock market, but the backstory is what's truly fascinating. Watch the #datavisualisation to find out why. pic.twitter.com/5rGIocIbLu
— James Eagle (@JamesEagle17) May 1, 2024
1.50pm: More mortgage rate hikes
Lloyds' Halifax and buy-to-let arm BM Solutions are raising mortgage rates for the second time in the past fortnight, as is Virgin Money, while Nottingham Building Society is also joining the fray.
Halifax is upping rates by up to 0.2% from tomorrow and BM Solutions by up to 0.24%, following last night's up-to-0.2% hikes from Virgin Money UK PLC (LSE:VMUK) and the hikes from NatWest, Nationwide Building Society and Santander earlier in the week.
Nottingham BS has lifted rates this morning by up to 0.25%.
Rates are being nudged up in recent weeks as financial markets recalibrate expectations for when the first Bank of England rate cut will come, moving from pricing in a first cut in June to now thinking it will come in August or September.
The BoE meets next Thursday.
12.56pm: Chip makers on the slide
Heading into the US open, a few of the semiconductor shares that have been hugely popular in recent months on the back of the AI theme, are diving in pre-market trading.
Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) delivered better results for the first quarter than expected but the optimism was overshadowed by weak guidance for the current quarter, sending shares 6% lower in premarket.
This was despite the company's improved outlook for 2024 AI revenues, with management now expecting to book north of $4 billion GPU sales in 2024, implying 1,000%-plus growth this quarter and next.
Analysts noted that the dip mirrors the post-earnings move we last quarter when AMD also lifted its AI sales forecast from at least $2 billion to $3.5 billion-plus.
READ MORE: Why did AMD get no love after first-quarter revenue beat?
Fellow semiconductor group Super Micro Computer Inc (NASDAQ:SMCI) is down 13% premarket after its own earnings seemed mixed.
Analysts at Wedbush said SuperMicro guided revenues for the year meaningfully higher, but the midpoint of management's guidance "implicitly suggests" profit margin deterioration.
Shares in NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA, ETR:NVD), the market leader, are down 2% pre-market.
12.35pm: Chaos for easyJet
Shares in easyJet PLC are down a touch, with news that passengers have been left confused and disrupted after the airline wrongly sent out emails and texts saying flights had been cancelled.
On Sunday, holidaymakers were sent messages saying flights scheduled to leave on April 30 had been cancelled, leaving some purchasing new tickets and cancelling journeys.
Howevger, a spokesperson said it was a "technical error" and that the flights were not cancelled.
12.20pm: Quiet day
Many bond and equity markets are closed for May Day/Labour Day, but traders can still get a steer on what’s happening through futures contracts on the major indices, says market analyst David Morrison at Trade Nation.
"Overnight, two markets that were open, in Australia and Japan, ended lower as they reacted to sharp falls across Wall Street on Tuesday.
"European stock index futures reacted similarly, falling sharply in response to last night's US sell-off which continued into this morning."
The UK’s FTSE 100 has held out against the pull-back.
The FTSE contains many dividend-paying value stocks, and a heavy weighting towards financials, consumer staples, industrials and energy, notes Morrison.
"Also going in its favour currently is its lack of exposure to the technology sector. So, the UK index should keep its place in the sun for as long as investors continue to unload tech stocks in particular, and growth stocks in general."
The US dollar has continued to strengthen across the board, with the dollar index hitting its highest level since November ahead of the Federal Reserve’s rate announcement later this evening.
"Any hawkish bias could see the dollar continue to rally," says Morrison.
11.51am: Into the red, Fed decision looms ahead
The FTSE 100 has joined the FTSE 250 and the rest of European mainland markets in the red (but I'm keeping the May Day pole photo as it's a shame to only use it once).
Heading towards midday, the blue-chip index is down two points at just under 8142, while its mid-cap sibling is down 35 points at 19,930.
Europe's main indices are mostly closed for the May Day hol, while Wall Street futures are pointing lower.
The Dow Jones is heading for a 0.2% decline, the S&P 500 a fall of 0.5% and Nasdaq 100 sliding 0.8%.
Analysts at Saxo Bank say the markets are nervous ahead of the Fed decision later.
"The market does not expect any change to the policy rate so everything will be about the details at the press conference.
"The market is clearly leaning towards higher-for-longer and potentially no rate cut, so the biggest reaction will come if Powell tilts dovish, which he could do to ease financial conditions in currency markets, but as we have stated macro conditions in the US alone do not at this point warrants a dovish tilt."
11.33am: Oil holding back FTSE
The fall in the price of crude is weighing on the FTSE, with oil heavyweight BP PLC (LSE:BP.) down 1.1% and larger rival Shell PLC (LSE:SHEL, NYSE:SHEL) down 0.7%
Oil prices have dropped to lowest in over a month, with Brent futures down 1.25% to $85.16 a barrel.
This is on the back of positive signals on the potential for a ceasefire in the Middle East and a report from the American Petroleum Institute showing a large jump in US crude stockpiles.
Inventories rose by almost 5 million barrels last week, following a significant drop the week before.
"It came as US producers have also been pumping more of the black stuff, with crude production rising in February by more than 13 million barrels, the biggest monthly increase in 3.5 years. This mismatch between supply and demand is weighing on prices," said Susannah Streeter at HL.
Economist Marc Ostwald at ADM Investor Services says the sharp drop in oil prices also "potentially [has] consequences for the inflation outlook across the globe".
11am: Does Gordon Brown regret it?
This month marks 25 years since Gordon Brown as Chancellor of the Exchequer started selling the UK’s gold reserves - at what turned out to be not far off the bottom of the market - with the price of the yellow metal having risen nearly 1,000% since.
Between 1999 and 2002, HM Treasury sold 400 tonnes of reserves, generating about $3.5 billion from the sales with the price around $285 per ounce at the start and around $300 in early 2002.
Gold is now selling for around $2,300 (£1,840) per ounce, meaning the same amount sold today would generate over $29 billion, I think.
Analyst Hal Cook at Hargreaves Lansdown has done the numbers and says: "After allowing for currency movements between the dollar and the pound, the UK has missed out on a return of 980% in sterling terms on the gold that was sold."
With CPI inflation of 85% over that time, "that’s a lot of missed gains," he says, even in real terms.
"Overall, it’s easy to say with hindsight that it was a bad decision to sell gold. But predicting its increase in value over the last 25 years would have been impressive, especially given it had only gone from $175 to $285 per troy ounce over the 25 years leading up to 1999."
10.40am: Small cap spotlight: Alpha and Trinity surge
Shares Alpha Financial Markets Consulting PLC (AIM:AFM) have jumped 29% after a tweet from Sky News scoop machine Mark Kleinmann that private equity groups are interested.
Exclusive: Private equity firms including Bridgepoint and Cinven are circling Alpha Financial Markets Consulting, a London-listed company which has a market capitalisation of more than £380m. New Mountain Capital, another buyout group, is also said to be interested. More soon.
— Mark Kleinman (@MarkKleinmanSky) May 1, 2024
Touchstone Exploration Inc (AIM:TXP, TSX:TXP, OTC:PBEGF) has agreed to acquire Trinidad oil and gas peer Trinity Exploration & Production PLC, in an all-share deal, worth £24.1 million.
Trinity shares have jumped 45% to 52.26p.
"We believe this acquisition represents a compelling strategic opportunity which will deliver enhanced scale, balance sheet strength, and growth opportunities," Touchstone chief executive Paul Baay said in a statement.
"The business combination will create an upstream oil and gas company of increased scale in Trinidad, enhancing our ability to deliver growth in reserves, production and cash flows for the benefit of our combined shareholders and local stakeholders."
Elsewhere, Mulberry Group (AIM:MUL) shares are down 2.3% following a trading update from the luxury handbag manufacturer.
The writing was on the wall when LVMH and Gucci owner Kering sounded the alarm last month, wow the downturn in the luxury market has hit closer to home, with indicated that its full-year profits would suffer due to a downturn in consumer spending.
10.13am: Manufacturing report shows risks for inflation
Some comments on the UK manufacturing PMIs, which fell into contraction territory with the prices index rising again.
Economist Rob Wood at Pantheon Macroeconomics says output seems to have "almost stabilised", noting the manufacturing PMI output balance slipped to 49.4, from 50.9 in March, which is above the average of 47.1 from the previous twelve months and almost consistent with flat manufacturing output.
"But the forward-looking indicators in the PMI suggest some loss of momentum," he says.
On prices, he says the input prices balance rose to the highest in 14 months and output prices also rose but remained below its pre-pandemic average "and is consistent with core producer output price inflation rising merely to 2% year-over-year.
"But the risk is manufacturers pass on more of the jump in cost inflation in future months."
Boudewijn Driedonks, partner at McKinsey & Company, says: "Zooming out to the wider economy, we are seeing a story of two halves. The service sector remains strong, and April saw service sector firms accelerate growth to the strongest level for 11 months. This month’s PMI again emphasises that manufacturing is the weak link in the economy. There are also signs of possible price pressures building for the future - wage bills are growing, and input prices are increasing."
Looking to the second half of the year, navigating a return to growth is not easy, he says.
9.47am: Manufacturing weakness, price inflation at 14-month high
While the UK manufacturing PMI was better than expected, the sector slipped back into contraction territory.
The sector showed "renewed signs of weakness at the start of the second quarter", said S&P Global alongside its April UK manufacturing PMI report.
"The UK manufacturing sector suffered a renewed downturn in April, as output and new orders contracted following short-lived rebounds in March," said Rob Dobson, director at S&P Global.
Input price inflation rose to a 14-month high, which he said is "worrisome for those looking for a sustainable path back to target (consumer price) inflation, with cost pressures growing in industry and feeding through to higher selling prices at the factory gate".
The manufacturing sector is "still besieged by weak market confidence, client destocking and disruptions caused by the ongoing Red Sea crisis, all of which are contributing to reduced inflows of new work from domestic and overseas customers, with specific reports of difficulty securing new contract wins from Europe, the US and Asia," he said.
9.35am: UK manufacturing PMI not as bad as expected
The UK manufacturing sector had a stronger April than expected, according to fresh purchasing managers index data from S&P Global/CIPS.
The manufacturing PMI came in at 49.1, up from 50.3 in the previous month, 48.7 in the mid-month ‘flash’ estimate and above the 48.7 consensus forecast from economists.
A PMI reading below 50 signifies an industry in contraction.
9.26am: Market overview
As in recent days, the FTSE 100 is an island of green in a sea of red, though the gains in London today are nothing to write home about.
Also, while it looks like there are some not-insignificant falls on the continent, but Germany, France, Italy and Spain are among the markets on the May Day holiday today.
The feeling from market analyst Neil Wilson at Markets.com is that the FTSE 100 felt pretty flat this morning in contrast to sharper falls across equity markets ahead of the US Federal Reserve decision today.
He highlights Aston Martin as remaining "an absolute car crash", with the shares dipping as much as 13% this morning as SUV sales fell flat and pre-tax losses almost doubled.
Wickes is 2.2% lower as the soft trends from the previous quarter continued and sales declined 4.2%. "No wonder given the property market – people don’t get a new kitchen every year if they are not moving house," says Wilson.
He said Wall Street's tumble ended "an ugly month", with the Dow down 5% for the month, the worst monthly performance since Sepember 2022, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both falling by more than 4% "as investors pushed back expectations for rate cuts".
Amazon but bounced afterhours as profits trebled, with ad revenues up 24% and AWS up 17%. Gains for the shares were capped by management saying they expect the company's spending for the year ahead to increase "meaningfully" from last year.
Yesterday the US market was rocked by a hotter-than-expected employment cost index from the US, which supports the narrative that the last leg down in inflation is going to be slow and uneven.
"The implication is that the labour market is still too hot for the Fed to cut," said Wilson, noting that Treasury yields jumped, which gave more support to the dollar, which rallied to its best against major peers in six months, while gold fell to its lowest in a month and crude prices also declined further.
9.17am: S&N knees knocking but guidance reassures
Top of the FTSE leaderboard is Smith & Nephew PLC (LSE:SN) with the shares up 2.7%.
This is despite Q1 revenues missing consensus by 1%, notes UBS analyst Graham Doyle, with "US Knees notably weak again".
However, the full-year guidance was reiterated and more detail on the half-year weighting was provided, which he said "should act as a relief".
Management reiterated guidance for underlying revenue growth of 5-6% and trading margin of at least 18.0%, with margin to be second-half-weighted as in prior years, although to a "less marked step-up than in 2023", with the first half to be 75-125 basis points ahead of a year ago.
"The US Knees performance is a real issue in terms of evidencing the turnaround; however, the comments on H1 margin should provide relief for investors fearing another significant step up in H2 to meet the full year guidance. Moreover, it leaves room for margins to do better than guidance given H2 should benefit from two more selling days."
8.58am: GSK is treating its long-held ailments
GSK shares are up 1.7% to 1700.5p, not far off the 18-month highs around 1725p seen earlier this year, with analysts saying the company is starting to allay long-held concerns.
Analyst Dr Sean Conroy at Shore Capital notes that revenues beat the average City forecast by 4% and EPS delivered a 16% beat to consensus.
"We sense that any lingering concerns that might have remained around GSK’s pipeline and its ability to deliver growth have continued to abate," says Conroy.
Derren Nathan, head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown, said strong growth in vaccine and speciality medicines drove the double digit rise in first-quarter sales and a second upgrade of the year.
"Prudent cost management has allowed underlying earnings to rise at a faster rate. But the one cost line GSK has been investing in is R&D. That’s pleasing to see given the clinical success emerging from the pipeline," Nathan says, adding that Zantac concerns still linger.
8.45am: Analyst thoughts on Haleon and Next
Next PLC (LSE:NXT)shares are down 0.7% despite first-quarter sales growing more that the company's guidance. Why?
Jefferies analyst James Grzinic seems to have expected a warmer reception for the numbers.
"The NXT of old may have been a greater hostage to the unhelpful weather conditions that have emerged in the UK in recent weeks," he said.
He said the 5.7% Q1 growth "should please" and was "likely consistent" with buy-side investor expectations, with the lack of upgrade to full-year profit guidance today "as anticipated".
Grzinic noted that Next has slightly reduced the Q2 expectation (a decline of 0.3% now expected) to accommodate the Q1 beat.
"Still, in our minds the combination of the potential for stronger UK discretionary sales (with fashion showing the potential to better defend its share of UK consumer wallets, after many years of slippage) and a better recognition of NXT's expanding TAM should provide attractive earnings and valuation tailwinds."
Looking at Haleon, where shares are down 1.7%, analyst James Orsborne at Stifel said the trading statement "represents a weaker start to the year on the top line, which was well flagged by the company as they lap a tough comparator period but a stronger performance at the operating profit level vs our expectations".
He notes that reported revenues were in line with the average analyst forecast (£2.92 billion versus £2.93 billion) and adjusted operating profits beat consensus (£707 million versus £675 million).
"The 1Q24 results see Haleon continue to guide organic revenue growth ahead of the underlying market and broader peers, restating its organic growth guidance to 4-6% for FY24. While we expect the business to continue to deliver operationally, we see the continuing share overhang from Pfizer, who still holds 23% of Haleon stock and an active seller, putting a cap on share price performance in the near term."
8.19am: FTSE dances higher
The FTSE 100 has started the month of May by dancing tentatively higher (I found a nice London may-pole picture to celebrate), recouping its small loss from yesterday but not much more.
After just over a quarter of an hour, the index is up 17 points at 8161, while the FTSE 250 is down 50 points or 0.25% to 19.915.
Topping the blue-chip leaderboard is Smith & Nephew PLC (LSE:SN), up almost 3% after its results showed revenue in line with expectations, despite a "tough" US environment for surgical business.
GSK PLC (LSE:GSK, NYSE:GSK) is another riser, up 1.2% after beating City forecasts with its first quarter and raising full-year guidance.
Haleon PLC (LSE:HLN, NYSE:HLN) is the biggest faller, down 2% as results were in line with consensus but perhaps were not as good as some had been expecting.
Next PLC (LSE:NXT) is down 1.2% despite beating guidance.
Reflecting the US tech sell-off overnight, Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust PLC (LSE:SMT) is one of the other main fallers.
As it's May Day this means there will be public holidays today across much of Europe and some of Asia.
"But it won’t be quiet later on with the latest FOMC set to be fascinating in terms of what Powell says about inflation and rates," says an excited Jim Reid at Deutsche Bank.
His quick review of April was that it saw "a change in tone from the positivity of Q1, as investors’ concern grew about sticky US inflation and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. Although that helped haven assets like gold and the US Dollar, it also meant the S&P 500 fell back (-4.16%) after five consecutive monthly gains, whilst 10yr Treasury yields (up +48bps) saw their biggest increase since September 2022."
7.59am: Haleon revenues fall
Haleon PLC (LSE:HLN, NYSE:HLN) has kept its sales growth guidance unchanged as it reported 3.0% organic revenue growth for the first quarter.
Sales volume/mix provided a negative contribution of 2%, held back by a weaker cold and flu season, offset by 5% price growth.
Reported revenue declined 2.2% to £2.9 billion, which was in line with the City consensus forecast, with negative impacts of 4.6% from currency swings and 0.6% from M&A.
The former GSK-Pfizer joint venture's Sensodyne and Polident/Poligrip oral health brands and Centrum vitamins did well, while prices benefitted from those carried forward from previous periods and and incremental price rises during the quarter.
7.40am: GSK raises outlook, Aston Martin losses grow
A strong start for drugmaker GSK PLC (LSE:GSK, NYSE:GSK) posted first-quarter revenues and earnings above City forecasts and hiked its outlook. Sales rose 6% to £7.4 billion, or 13% excluding Covid-related medicines, while core earnings per share came in at 43.1p, up 16% and better than the 36.5p consensus.
Boss Dame Emma Walmsley now expects 2024 turnover growth towards the upper part of the previous 5% to 7% range, with core operating profit growth of 9% to 11% (up from 7% to 10%), with core EPS growth of 8% to 10% (up from 6% to 9%).
A dividend was declared of 15p for Q1 and 60p is expected for the full year.
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC (LSE:AML) reported sales volume in the first quarter were down 26% and revenue 10% lower to £267.7 million.
Earnings (EBITDA) fell 34% to £19.9 million below the £29 million average analyst estimate, with a loss before tax increasing 87% to £138.8 million.
Full-year guidance was reiterated though, which includes a positive free cash flow inflection in the second half.
7.26am: Next beats guidance, as usual
High street retailer Next PLC (LSE:NXT) has reported first-quarter sales growth ahead of guidance, which won't surprise many followers.
The canny clothing chain said full-price sales in the thirteen weeks to 27 April rose 5.7% on last year, slightly ahead of guidance for a 5% increase and last year's growth of 4%.
Sales in the second quarter are expected to be down 0.3% compared to a warm and sunny period last year (what we would give for that now!), which is implied by full-price sales guidance for the first half as a whole remaining at 2.5%.
But boss Simon Wolfson and the board are not changing full-year sales and profit guidance, which means group pre-tax profit should rise almost 5% to £960 million.
7.15am: FTSE searching for direction after strong run
The FTSE 100 ended its succession of record closing highs yesterday and on Wednesday, 1 May, London's blue-chip benchmark appears to be searching for direction.
After a decline of 2.9 points on the last day of the month to 8,144.13 meant the total gain was 2.6% during a damp April and 6.7% since the start of March, the index is predicted to start slowly this morning.
Spread-betters are wavering between a small rise or a small fall.
Sentiment in New York only darkened overnight, with the Nasdaq at the head of a broad decline, falling 2%, the S&P 500 dropping 1.6% and the Dow Jones losing 1.5%. All but three of the top 50 stocks in the S&P declined.
Meanwhile, back in the UK, there is company news due today from GSK, Next, Computacenter, Haleon, and Smith & Nephew.
Elsewhere, house price numbers have been released by Nationwide, showing a fall of 0.4% month on month in April.
The annual rate of change slowed to 0.6%, from 1.6% in March.
“The slowdown likely reflects ongoing affordability pressures, with longer term interest rates rising in recent months, reversing the steep fall seen around the turn of the year," said Robert Gardner, Nationwide's chief economist.
"House prices are now around 4% below the all-time highs recorded in the summer of 2022, after taking account of seasonal effects."