• Prime Minister Theresa May yesterday announced that MPs will be given the opportunity to vote on whether to hold a second referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU.
• The US major averages rose on Tuesday, led by gains in the technology sector, after President Trump’s administration granted temporary exemptions to suppliers of blacklisted Huawei Technologies.
• Asia markets look set to close cautiously mix this morning.
• Today’s UK financial updates include finals from: Babcock International, Great Portland Estates, Intermediate Capital, Marks & Spencer, Pets at Home, Royal Mail, SSE and U & I, interims from Britvic, easyHotel, Paragon Banking and Stride Gaming, trading statements from IG Group with General Meetings due for Antofagasta, Bovis Homes, Cairn Homes, Gamma Communications, Georgia Healthcare, Judges Scientific, K3 Business Technology, Medica Group, SafeCharge International and Sound Energy.

SVS expects the FTS100 to be around 20 points higher in today’s opening trade. Sterling’s rally resulting from the PM offering MPs a vote on a second referendum appears to be short-lived this morning following broad opposition from lawmakers on both sides of the House, while US shares ended up on rallying tech shares, albeit little changed from that of the European close and Asian equities remain modestly mixed as trade tensions linger. London equities rose yesterday as sentiment warmed to the news that the U.S. would grant a 90-day extension before implementing its ban on sales of technological goods/services to China’s Huawei as blue chips also benefitted from the Pound tumbling to its lowest level against the US$ since early January. Coming only shortly before the UK market close, Prime Minister Theresa May laid out a her ‘bold offer’ to get Parliament to back her Brexit package, offering the prospect of a second Brexit referendum and various new concessions to entice both her and opposition party members opposition lawmakers to support its the deal for a fourth and presumably last time. This rallied Sterling and equities for the final few minutes of trading, taking the FTSE 100 to 7328.92, or +0.25%, which was still insufficient to match gains amongst European blue-chips, with the Stoxx Europe 600 index advancing 0.7% on Tuesday, also led by technology shares.

Prime Minister Theresa May yesterday announced that MPs will be given the opportunity to vote on whether to hold a second referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU. Her ‘bold offer’, which had been preceded by a rallying Sterling, came however with her warning that the House’s inability to reach an agreement on Brexit would lead to a “nightmare future of permanently polarised politics”. She went on to suggest the government would introduce a new Workers’ Rights Bill to “ensure UK workers enjoy rights that are every bit as good as, or better than, those provided for by EU rules.” May went on to note that the deal requires the government to devise alternative arrangements by December 2020 to replace the controversial Irish backstop, “so that it never needs to be used”, while also pledging to find “as close to frictionless trade in goods with the EU as possible” while the UK remains outside the single market despite ending free movement.

The US major averages rose on Tuesday, led by gains in the technology sector, after President Trump’s administration granted temporary exemptions to suppliers of blacklisted Huawei Technologies. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 197 points, or 0.77%, to 25877. The S&P 500 added 0.85% and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.1%. Semiconductor stocks and hardware producers led gains, recovering some of their past week of losses, with traders speculating that the reprieve would allow them to avoid hefty fines and that, in any case, this may be just part of the ‘poker game’ Trump is playing with the Chinese ahead of a resumption of trade talks following the G-20 meeting at the end of June. Gains in both tech and industrial companies boosted the major averages, being viewed as proxies for international trade and global growth. Caterpillar rose 2.1% and Boeing added 1.7%, while Advanced Micro Devices gained 2.5%, Western Digital 3.6% and semiconductor stock Intel put on 2.1%.

Asia markets look set to close cautiously mix this morning. Despite China’s ambassador to the US, Cui Tiankai, suggesting to the media this morning that the “door is still open” for a resumption of US trade negotiations, no new talks are presently formally scheduled. Traders, however, continue to speculate that the G-20 meeting at the end of next month will provide a suitable forum for the two presidents to again test the water. Against this background, Japan’s Nikkei 225 was recently +0.08% despite news that exports fell for a fifth straight month in April. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng meanwhile is +0.11% but the Shanghai Composite is -0.46% weaker and the more domestic Shenzhen Composite -0.63% slipped 0.2%. South Korea’s Kospi is currently +0.36% while benchmark TIAEX in Taiwan is flat. Singapore’s STI is +0.19% and Indonesia JCI -0.32% and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 +0.11% are almost unchanged.

Today’s UK financial updates include finals from: Babcock International, Great Portland Estates, Intermediate Capital, Marks & Spencer, Pets at Home, Royal Mail, SSE and U & I, interims from Britvic, easyHotel, Paragon Banking and Stride Gaming, trading statements from IG Group with General Meetings due for Antofagasta, Bovis Homes, Cairn Homes, Gamma Communications, Georgia Healthcare, Judges Scientific, K3 Business Technology, Medica Group, SafeCharge International and Sound Energy. With the US’s Q1’2019 earnings announcements now in full flood, filings scheduled for today include: Analog Devices, Lowes Cos, NetApp, Organovo, Photronics, Synopsys, Target Corp, Universal and Williams-Sonoma.