FTSE 100 slightly lower; earnings and employment data in focus today

Investing.com – U.K. equities started mixed on Tuesday. The top gaining sectors were Household Goods, Media and Travel & Leisure. Oil & Gas, Industrial Metals & Mining and Chemicals were the top fallers.

At the market open in London, the FTSE 100 Index dropped 0.15%. The FTSE 250 Index and the FTSE 350 Index were undecided. The FTSE 250 climbed 0.13%, while the FTSE 350 was down by 0.10%.

Top Gainers:

• EasyJet (LON:EZJ): Climbed 4.30% or 21.60 points to 523.80.
• IAG (LON:ICAG): Increased 3.17% or 6.31 points to 205.06 .
• Barratt Developments (LON:BTRW): Rose 2.22% or 10.20 points to 469.40.

Top Losers:

• BP (LON:BP): Fell 3.46% or 14.15 points to 394.35.
• Croda International PLC (LON:CRDA): Dropped 2.52% or 100.0 points to 3,853.0.
• Anglo American (LON:AAL): Declined 2.56% or 59.0 points to 2,244.5.

In Commodities Trading:

• Gold Futures for December delivery rose 0.35 points to 2,665.95 a troy ounce.
• Crude Oil for November delivery fell 3.01 points to 70.82 a barrel.
• December Brent Oil Contract dropped 3.91% or 3.03 points to 74.43 a barrel.

Currency Markets:

• GBP/USD dropped slightly. The pound sterling is trading at 1.3049 at the time of writing this article.
• EUR/GBP is at 0.8343.
• The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.02% at 103.105.

Main Economic Events:

Today's main economic events in the United Kingdom the earnings data and unemployment.

The unemployment rate was 4.0% vs. 4.1% expected, while earnings including bonuses met the expectations at 3.8% for the month of August. Employment change has exceeded the expectations by around 120K and read 373K vs. 250K expected.