FTSE 100 Live: Oil near $100 a barrel, 888 profit warning, shares seen higher

Oil prices near $100 a barrel, Asia markets struggle

Brent Crude futures today stood at $97.53, the oil benchmark’s highest level since last November after figures yesterday showed a big drop in US stockpiles.

The bigger-than-expected fall of 2.2 million million barrels has added to supply concerns after Saudi Arabia extended its voluntary output cut through to the end of the year.

The recent climb in oil prices has fuelled worries that inflation will take longer to fall back to target levels, forcing central banks to keep interest rates high for longer.

The S&P 500 index is at a three-month low after a 4% decline in the past week but steadied last night. The FTSE 100 index, which fell by 0.4% last yesterday, is forecast by CMC Markets to open 17 points higher at 7610 as traders carry out quarter-end positioning.

In Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 and the Hang Seng are both down by more than 1% as the Hong Kong-based benchmark heads for its lowest close of the year.

The selling came as it emerged that shares in China’s debt-laden property giant Evergrande have been suspended.

888 warns on profits days after rival Entain

William Hill owner 888 has become the second gambling giant in four days to warn investors of the impact of factors including new UK safer gambling rules.

The business issued a profit warning today, revealing it now expects revenue to decline by a larger-than-thought 10% and margins to come in lower than expected at 10%.

Like Entain earlier in the week, 888 blamed bettor-friendly sporting results and the safer gambling reforms that the Government announced in April. 888 also noted an “ongoing significant impact from compliance changes implemented in dotcom markets”, where the legal status of online gambling is often ill-defined. 888 made major changes to its policies in these countries after launching an internal probe in January into the checks it performed on Middle Eastern high rollers.

Executive chair Lord Mendelsohn said: “We are making significant strides to improve the quality and long-term sustainability of our revenues, but performance in Q3 has been below our expectations, and this means we now expect to end the year with EBITDA below our prior expectation.”

888 shares closed at 109.9p yesterday, up 24.9% for the year but down 80% from their peak in 2021. They are down 8.2% over the last week, mostly due to read-across from the Entain revenue warning.

Recap: Yesterday’s top stories

Good morning. Here’s a summary of our top headlines from yesterday: