Proactive Investors - Good morning. The FTSE 100 is expected to mark time ahead of the US inflation figures later today which will give a further indication as to whether the Federal Reserve may pause further interest rate hikes.
Spread betting companies are calling London’s lead index up by around 1 points.
Michael Hewson at CMC Markets said: “It’s been a subdued start to the week for markets in Europe with little in the way of overall direction, although we have seen a slightly negative bias, along with a slightly firmer US dollar ahead, as markets look towards today’s US CPI report for April.”
On Wall Street on Tuesday, Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 56.88 points, or 0.2% at 33,561.81. The S&P 500 lost 18.95 points, 0.5%, at 4,119.17 points while the Nasdaq Composite fared worst falling 77.37 points, 0.6%, at 12,179.55.
In Asia on Wednesday, the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo was down 0.3%. In China, the Shanghai Composite declined 1.5%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong fell 0.7%.
Back in London and the early focus will be results and trading updates from Asos, Compass, Harbour Energy (LON:HBR) and TUI (LON:TUIT).