BUSINESS LIVE: GSK to enchantment US courtroom ruling; Ashcroft chairs Marlowe

Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets, Hargreaves Lansdown:

‘Positive vibes are powering the FTSE 100 higher, as fresh hopes swirl that interest rate cuts are not as far off as feared. Strong trading in Asia has laid the groundwork for an upbeat session, as investors take took cues from gains on Wall Street on Friday.

‘Signs of weaker consumer spending patterns have lifted expectations that upwards price pressures could ease off and that the Fed may be less inclined to keep interest rates higher for longer.

‘With lower borrowing costs spied on the horizon, it may start to give a little lift to oil prices, which are languishing around 3-month lows. Brent Crude is trading around $81 dollars a barrel despite an agreement by OPEC+ to extend output cuts into 2025.

‘There’s fresh music to the ears of Hipgnosis Songs Fund investors at the start of the week. The board and Blackstone have now agreed the terms and conditions of an increased cash takeover deal. The offer price of $1.31 per share is a small increase on the agreement reached in April and represents a 49% premium to the closing price of 71p a share, prior to the agreed offer from competitor Concord.

‘Although there may be a little disappointment that another suitor had not charged in with a much higher offer following the bidding war, the deal still marks a turn up for the books for investors. It follows a volatile run which saw shares sink to a low after the value of the fund’s music portfolio was slashed by more than 25%.’

Boeing will take years to recover from the latest safety crisis, its largest customer has warned.

Tim Clark, who is president of luxury airline Emirates, has said the aircraft manufacturer will struggle to get back on track following the mid-air blowout on an Alaska Airlines flight.

London-listed stocks have kicked off the week on the front foot, echoing counterparts in Asia, as investors anticipate a rate cut by the European Central Bank, while drugmaker GSK keeps gains in check..

The ECB will meet later this week where investors expect it to trim borrowing costs by a quarter point.

Analysts predict the Bank of Englandto closely shadow the ECB’s movements, positioning itself to quickly follow suit in initiating the rate-cutting cycle.

The BoE will meet two weeks from now to take a call on interest rates in Britain.

Investors will also closely monitor a slew of economic data set to drop this week, including domestic manufacturing data for May due later in the day.

Hipgnosis Songs Fund has gained 1 per cent after Blackstone sweetened its offer for the music rights investor by a cent to $1.31 from $1.30 as part of a revised bid.

GSK has dropped 9.5 per cent after a Delaware ruling allowed more than 70,000 lawsuits to proceed over its discontinued heartburn drug Zantac.

St. James’s Place is the top gainer on the benchmark index, with a 5.6 per cent jump, after JP Morgan upgraded its rating on the stock to ‘overweight’ from ‘neutral’.

GSK will seek an appeal after a US judge ruled more than 70,000 lawsuits over discontinued heartburn drug Zantac to go forward, with expert witnesses permitted to testify in court that the drug may cause cancer.

The ruling on Friday by Judge Vivian Medinilla of the Delaware Superior Court in Wilmington is a setback for GSK, Pfizer, Sanofi and Boehringer Ingelheim, which had argued that the expert witnesses’ opinions lacked scientific support.

GSK said in a statement this morning:

‘GSK disagrees with the ruling by the Delaware State Court and will immediately seek an appeal.

‘The decision by the State Court contradicts the Federal Court’s MDL ruling under the same legal standard, which dismissed all cases alleging five cancer types, in December 2022.

‘GSK will continue to vigorously defend itself against all claims and manage this litigation in the best interests of shareholders. Alongside immediately seeking an appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court, the Company will file motions for dismissal pressing additional defenses, severance of cases, and proof-of-use by claimants; and, at the same time, the Company will progress to trials of individual cases.’

The would-be owner of Royal Mail Daniel Kretinsky has refused to rule out further price hikes for first class stamps.

The billionaire – nicknamed the ‘Czech Sphinx’ – has suggested costs could continue to spiral in coming years.