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In the US, Wall Street looks set to open lower after a disappointing outlook from Apple Inc stoked concern about a slowdown in consumer spending in a market that remains unconvinced yesterday’s surprise interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve can stave off a recession. Meanwhile, Scottish & Newcastle fell back 8 at 738 as Carlsberg and Heineken are thought to have run into due diligence problems as they pore over the British brewer’s books before making a formal takeover offer of 800 pence per share, the Financial Times reported. On the upside, Prudential was the top riser, up 21-1/2 at 640 on reports in the 21st Century Business Herald that Ping An Insurance (Group) Co of China Ltd, the country’s second largest life insurer, may take a stake worth 100 bln yuan in the group. The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News. Intraday data provided by ComStock , an Interactive Data Company and subject to the Terms of Use . Historical, current end-of-day data, and splits data provided by FT Interactive Data . read more

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