London pre-open: Stocks to edge lower after Thursday's selloff; payrolls in focus

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to edge lower at the open on Friday following heavy losses a day earlier, as investors continued to assess the impact of Trump's bombshell tariff announcement and eyed the latest US non-farm payrolls report.

The FTSE 100 was called to open around 20 points lower, having closed down 1.6% on Thursday.

Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, said: "The March payrolls figure seems very stale and out of date after this week's tariff announcements. Friday's payrolls data will not be impacted by Trump's extreme tariffs, we will need to wait for the coming months to see how this could impact the hard US economic data, which has only moderated slightly, compared to a sharp fall in the soft economic data since the start of 2025. Either way, payrolls are always worth watching.

"The market is expecting no major surprises from the March report, with 140k non-farm jobs expected to be created, the unemployment rate is expected to remain stable at 4.1%, and average hourly earnings are expected to have grown by 4% YoY, within the long-term range."

In corporate news, BP said that its chair was stepping down amid calls by investor groups for a shake-up of the board.

Helge Lund, who has held the role since January 2019, will leave "in due course", BP said, most likely in 2026 once his successor has been appointed.

The announcement comes less than a month after activist investor Follow This said it would call for a vote against Lund's reappointment at April's shareholder meeting.

The group is angry that Lund did not offer an investors a say on BP's decision to scrap its energy transition targets.

AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo's Enhertu has been approved in the European Union as a monotherapy for the treatment of adult patients with unresectable or metastatic hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-low or HER2-ultralow breast cancer, the companies said.

The approval by the European Commission follows the positive opinion of the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use and is based on results from the DESTINY-Breast06 Phase III trial.

Science Group increased its stake in Ricardo to 19.09% from 16.85% earlier in the week, as it pressured the company over governance, financial performance, and strategic direction.

The group accused Ricardo's board of mismanagement, poor cost control, and a lack of accountability in a letter on Monday, calling for no further merger and acquisition activity without shareholder approval and questioning the chair's position. Science Group said it may or may not increase its shareholding further.