Three important things you need to know from across the markets this morning from investment writer, Tony Cross.
The housebuilder may have seen itself elevated once again to the rarefied position of a FTSE-100 company on Tuesday but the subsequent bounce often associated with such a promotion is looking short lived. By mid morning the stock was the worst performer in the blue chip index, down 4.5%. Even yesterday’s positive broker note has failed to provide much in the way of sustainability, although an accompanying note from brickmaker Ibstock today did suggest that weakness in the house building market may prevail for some time yet.
The gambling company 888 published a post-close trading statement this morning which rattled investor sentiment, sending the stock more than 13% lower before buyers moved in. The note highlighted regulatory impacts and a shift away from online gaming as weighing on performance, although full year EBITDA is set to come in as forecast. The outlook is a little less rosy however with FY24’s figures now tipped to be at the lower end of the consensus range of £340m-£397m.
Educational publisher Pearson provided a trading update this morning, heralding a significant uplift in operating profits as the cost efficiency program gained traction and subscriber numbers broke above the 1 million mark. However this still wasn’t sufficient to placate a market that is clearly distracted by this morning’s macroeconomic news. Shares dipped as much as 2.5% in early trade before some buying support emerged.
