London stocks were set to open flat near record highs on Wednesday after two days of strong gains, as investors eyed a potential end to what has been the longest US government shutdown in history.
The FTSE 100 was called to open flat at around 9,899.
Investors will turn their attention to the US, where a vote is due in the House of Representatives to pass the funding bill ending the shutdown.
Danske Bank said: "After the shutdown ends, the data collected until September should be released very quickly, likely within a few days. The most important releases would be the Jobs Report, retail sales and Q3 GDP.
"However, the October releases will likely be delayed further as the shutdown has interfered with the data collection period. This means that even if the shutdown ends by Thursday, we believe the October CPI release will still be delayed."
In UK corporate news, defence contractor BAE cautioned that delays to contract funding and payment timings could occur if the US government shutdown persisted.
The company also held annual guidance as trading in the second was in line with expectations. BAE said it was "encouraged" by a vote in the US Senate to approve a compromise bill to resume funding until the end of January which still needs lower house and presidential approval.
Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey said it still expects full-year results to be in line with guidance despite experiencing "softer market conditions" so far in the second half.
Net private sales per outlet averaged 0.63 a week since 30 June, down from 0.71 the year before, while underlying pricing remains broadly flat, impacted by uncertainty ahead of the upcoming Autumn Budget and continued affordability pressures on consumers, the company said.
SSE said it will spend billions on the UK's electricity network as it unveiled a five-year investment plan alongside interim results.
The power generator said the £33bn, five-year plan would increase its exposure to UK electricity networks and drive earnings growth.
The update came as it posed a 29% fall in adjusted earnings per share, to 36.1p, which SSE said was in line with expectations and consistent with typical seasonality.