The FTSE 100 is projected to drop 0.2% in early trade after slipping 0.45% on Thursday.
IMI (LON:IMI) emerged atop the leaderboard with a 4.2% gain.
Insurance focused investor Resolution (LON:RSL) followed, rising 3.7%.
Royal Bank of Scotland (LON:RBS) and car insurer Admiral Group (LON:ADM) followed with gains of 3.5% and 3% respectively.
Financial Times publisher Pearson (LON:PSON) climbed 2.6%.
Retailer Tesco (LON:TSCO) was at the bottom of the pile with a 4.3% loss.
British American Tobacco (LON:BATS) and fashion house Burberry (LON:BRBY) declined 3.6% and 3.4% respectively.
In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and the S&P 500 index lost 0.2%, while the technology heavy NASDAQ composite was down 0.1%.
Yesterday’s jobless claims update form the Labor Department showed an unexpected gain of 35,000.
Home Depot (NYSE:HD) was the leading riser in the Dow Jones index with a 1.3% gain.
No other DJIA component added 1% or more.
Merck (NYSE:MRK) was at the bottom of the pile with a 6.6% loss.
Alcoa (NYSE:AA) and Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) declined 3% and 1.5% respectively.
McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) and Microsoft (NYSE:MSFT) each lost 1.3%.
Asian stocks were mixed today. China’s Shanghai Composite Index dipped 1.1% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.9%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.15% and South Korea’s KOSPI climbed 0.9%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.15%.
Commodities
Oil prices declined with US light, sweet crude for February delivery falling to US$91.10/barrel. March crude dropped to US$92.10/barrel.
Gold held steady at US$1,374/oz. Other precious metals rose with silver and platinum reaching US$28.87/oz and US$1,813/oz respectively.
Copper declined to US$4.35/lb. Nickel and zinc stood at US$11.41/lb and US$1.107/lb.
Today’s macroeconomic data will include US industrial production, business inventories, retail sales and consumer price index.