FTSE 100 heads lower.

FTSE 100 heads lower, down 21 points.

The FTSE 100 made a subdued start on Monday with little major economic or corporate news to provide direction.

At 8.15 am London’s lead index was down 4.01 points at 7,943.10 while the FTSE 250 was at 19,944.51, up 18.74 points, or 0.094%.

Investors will be eyeing US non-farm payrolls figures on Friday while the chair of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell will appear before the US Congress tomorrow.

“Looking at the latest set of data, the U-turn of easing inflation, and last month’s blowout jobs figures, we don’t expect to hear anything less than hawkish from Powell. But it’s always possible that a word like ‘disinflation’ slips out of his mouth, and that we get a boost on risk,” said Swiss quote Bank’s Ipek Ozkardeskaya.

On a quiet day of corporate news WAN disco became the latest company to say it was looking at an additional listing in the US although it stressed it remained committed to the AIM market. Shares rose 1.1%.

Shell’s new boss told The Times that the US was a more attractive proposition for energy investment than the UK.

Sawan said he would “think twice” about further oil investment, citing “more attractive” propositions, such as the US Gulf of Mexico. Shares opened 0.2% higher.

AstraZeneca PLC (LSE: AZN) noted positive high-level results from an analysis of the ongoing Destiny-PanTumor02 phase II trial for Ehnert. Ehnert, or trastuzumab deruxtecan, met the target for objective response rate and showed a durable response across multiple HER2-expressive advanced solid tumours in heavily pre-treated patients. Ehnerts is being jointly commercialized by Astra and Daiichi Sankyo. Shares were a little changed.

Shipping services company Clarkson reported a sharp rise in annual earnings, driven by a strong performance in its broking division. Investors liked the update marking shares up by 2.4%.

Pre-tax profit for the 2022 calendar year came in at £100.1mln, compared with £69.1mln a year earlier. The total dividend was lifted to 93p a share from 84p.

One early faller was Reckitt Benckiser which was downgraded to hold from buy by Deutsche Bank. The German bank left its price target unchanged at 6,500p. “We feel there are limited catalysts for a near-term re-rating,” the broker said. Shares fell 1%.

Heading the other way was B&M European Value Retail SA, up 1.1%, as RBC upgraded to outperform with a 550p price target.

FTSE 100 TECHNICAL ANALYSIS DAILY CHART:

FTSE 100 is currently trading in down channel.

FTSE 100 is currently trading below 20&50 SMA.

RSI is in buying zone which suggests bullishness and Stochastic is suggesting no trend.

FTSE 100 immediate resistance is at 7953 & its immediate support level is 7897.3

HOW TO TRADE FTSE 100 IN THIS WEEK

FTSE 100 is trading in the down Channel; now it is at the support zone, if the price broke the support level, we could see further downside.

TRADE SUGGESTION-SELL AT 7897.1, TARGET AT 7878.1, SL AT 7911.0