Thursday 27 March 2014 3:42 am

What you need to know before the open

A lower open’s expected for European markets this morning, following the slightly surprising selloff seen in US markets yesterday.

It’s unclear quite how the selloff came about, but President Obama’s criticisms of Russia’s actions in Crimea probably didn’t help.

Meanwhile, weak underlying durable goods numbers yesterday point to still-listless demand on the US consumer front.

Ofgem’s confirmed the energy market is to face a full-scale investigation from the Competition and Markets Authority.

Corporate news

Engineering group Babcock has said this morning that it’s agreed to buy Avincis, which provides search and rescue helicopters, for £920m.

Global caterer Compass Group’s said 2014’s got off to a good start, with organic revenue growth for the first half expected to be at just over four per cent.

Serco, the government contractor emerging from the prisoner tagging scandal, has said this morning that it’s been awarded the interim contract to continue operating the Northern Rail franchise on behalf of the Department for Transport. It runs the service in a joint venture with Abellio.

Airbus has agreed a £6bn deal to supply 70 new planed to China.

Ophir Energy says it’s been provisionally awarded a new offshore licence in Myanmar.

In the retail sector, high street favourite H&M says pre-tax profit rose eight per cent in the first quarter of this year from a year ago.

Meanwhile, Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank has said it saw pre-tax profit drop 20 per cent to €603m last year, as the eastern Europe-heavy lender cut 1,200 staff in Ukraine. It said its loan-to-deposit ratio at its Ukrainian unit was almost 148 per cent at the end of 2013.

Thomas Cook’s said growth’s on track, despite continued unrest in Egypt affecting winter trading. It’s already sold 50 per cent of summer holidays.

Data in focus