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 6,705.4. 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 closed up 0.2%, the Hang Seng trades down 0.6%, and the Shanghai Composite is down 0.9%.
The euro spiked against the dollar early Thursday following the report of a faster-than-expected acceleration in German factory orders in June. Factory orders climbed a seasonally and working-day-adjusted 2.0% month-on-month in June, reversing a 0.3% drop in May, which was revised from a 0.2% fall. Economists had expected only a 0.3% increase for the month.
The euro hit a high of USD1.0944 against the dollar after the data, and trades at USD1.0919 ahead of the London open
Aviva said the integration of Friends Life, the rival insurer it bought for GBP5.6 billion, is ahead of schedule. The FTSE 100 insurer said that GBP63 million of run-rate synergies have been generated so far through the acquisition and integration of Friends Life, and said it's confident of meeting the overall GBP225 million synergy target.
Low-cost airline easyJet said it carried more passengers in July up from a year earlier and increased its load factor year-on-year. The FTSE 100-listed budget carrier said it carried 7.0 million passengers in July, up from 6.4 million a year earlier, for a 9.4% rise. On a rolling 12-month basis, passenger numbers are up 6.1% to 67.7 million, it said. It also said its load factor for the month improved, up by 1.4 percentage points to 94.3% from 92.9% a year earlier.
Specialist healthcare company BTG announced that Health Canada has approved Varithena, its polidocanol injectable foam for the treatment of varicose veins. BTG said that an estimated 3.7 million Canadians have varicose veins, with women twice as likely as men to develop varicosities.
Anglo-South African paper and packaging company Mondi posted a rise in pretax profit and revenue for the first half and said all the capital projects it is currently enacting are progressing on track.
The FTSE 100-listed company said its pretax profit in the first half to the end of June rose to EUR392.0 million, up from EUR312.0 million a year earlier, as revenue increased to EUR3.46 billion from EUR3.15 billion. It said it will pay an interim dividend of 14.38 euro cents, up from 13.23 cents.
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 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.
