This morning, the index was up 0.2%, with investors trading cautiously ahead of the release of the minutes from the U.S. Fed's latest meeting, which should provide more clues about its monetary policy in 2023.

Also today, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is due to unveil its priorities for this year in a speech in which he will try to reassure Tories and the British population as a whole that he is the right person to guide the country amid workers strikes, an upcoming recession and persistent inflation.

The British Retail Consortium just revealed fresh food prices at British supermarkets in early December were 15.0% higher than a year earlier, which represents the biggest annual increase since records started in 2005. This comes as new data showed French inflation unexpectedly slowed in December, with Germany and Spain showing similar trends.

 

Things to read today:

UK Faces worst and longest recession in G7, say economists (Financial Times)

French Inflation Unexpectedly Slows, Easing Pressure on ECB (Bloomberg)

Markets Pray for a Goldilocks Economy in 2023 (Bloomberg)