Proactive Investors - The FTSE 100 is expected to make a muted start to proceedings ahead of a slew of service sector PMI readings.
Spread betting companies are calling London’s blue-chip index down by around 11 points. The index of London large-caps had closed down 7.54 points, or 0.1% at 7,519.72 on Tuesday.
US markets were closed for Independence Day while in Asia markets fell following a slowdown in the Caixin services purchasing managers' index in China which eased to 53.9 points in June from 57.1 in May.
In China, the Shanghai Composite was down 0.5%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was down 1.3%. The Nikkei fell 0.5% in Tokyo.
After the London close there will be the minutes from the latest Federal Open Market Committee meeting.
"Tonight's minutes may offer up further clues as to the Fed’s thinking when it comes to why they think that two more rate hikes at the very least will be needed by the end of this year," CMC's Michael Hewson noted.
Back in London, and aside from the service sector PMI print, updates from AO World and Topps Tiles will provide an early focus.