LONDON (Alliance News) - UK stocks are set to open lower on 'Super Thursday' which will see the Bank of England release its monetary policy decision, minutes and inflation report at noon London time.
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has previously hinted that the central bank will start to consider changing its UK interest rate policy at end of 2015, but said that any increases would be slow and suggested that interest rates will rise to no more than 2.25% in the medium term.
This has led some analysts to expect some members of the monetary policy committee to vote for a rate hike in the August meeting, with known hawks Martin Weale and Ian McCafferty the most likely. The statements will be released at 1200 BST, and Carney will hold a press conference at 1245 BST.
"While we aren't expecting any change to rates from the Bank of England today, with the latest rate decision, we will be able to get a window on the discussions immediately after the fact, instead of having to wait two weeks to see what was discussed and whether there was any dissent," says Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.
"Expectations are for the consensus of 9-0-0 since the beginning of the year to break along the same lines we saw at the back end of 2014, with potentially Martin Weale and Ian McCafferty calling for a modest rise in the base rate, with the remaining seven standing pat," Hewson adds, referring to the MPC vote.
IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 to open lower at 6,712.7. The index closed up 1.0% at 6,752.41 on Wednesday.
On Wall Street Wednesday, the DJIA closed down 0.1%, while the S&P 500 ended up 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite closed up 0.7%, following mixed economic data. A report from payroll processor ADP showed that the pace of US private-sector job growth slowed by more than expected in July, while a report from the Institute for Supply Management showed that US service sector activity expanded at a significantly faster rate in July.
Trading in Asia is mixed Thursday, the Japanese Nikkei is up 0.6%, the Hang Seng trades down 0.5%, and the Shanghai Composite is up 0.2%.
In the UK corporate calendar, there are half-year results from Inmarsat, Aviva, Rio Tinto, RSA Insurance Group, Mondi, Randgold Resources, Aggreko, Savills, Cobham, Kennedy Wilson Europe Real Estate and Vitec Group. EasyJet releases July traffic statistics and Enterprise Inns issues a trading statement.
Troubled insurance technology and outsourcing company Quindell will resume trading on AIM at the open, after releasing its results for 2014 on Wednesday. The company said its pretax loss for 2014 widened significantly due to impairment charges the group booked following a change to its accounting policies, which had been described as being at the "aggressive end of acceptable" by PricewaterhouseCoopers after the review it conducted into the company's books.
Additionally, Quindell said the UK Serious Fraud Office that it has opened an investigation into its past business and accounting practices.
In the economic calendar, aside from the Bank of England releases, there are German factory orders at 0700 BST, UK industrial and manufacturing production at 0930 BST, US initial and continuing jobless claims at 1330 BST and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research's UK GDP estimate at 1500 BST.
By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1
Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
