All eyes on the Fed and the BoE

The FTSE 100 index inched down 0.1% this morning after the long bank holiday weekend. Yesterday, Wall Street indexes finished higher, as investors come to term with the fact that the Federal Reserve will increase interest rates by half a percentage point on Wednesday. It is also expected to come up with an aggressive course of Quantitative Tightening.

On Thursday, it will be the turn of the Bank of England to unveil its monetary policy, and it is widely expected to announce another rise in interest rates. This comes after the Reserve Bank of Australia raised rates overnight.

Today's publication of UK manufacturing PMI figures for April will give investor further clues on the impact of inflation.

Among stocks, BP Plc published its results, with earnings reaching $6.2 billion (£5 billion) in the first three months of 2022, lifted by soaring oil and gas prices.

 

Things to read today:

BP post highest quarterly earnings in 10 years (Financial Times)

The Bank of England Celebrates 25 years of independence (The Times)

Russian threats redraw the global energy map (New York Times)