London pre-open: Flat start for FTSE ahead of US Fed meeting

City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open just one point higher than yesterday's close of 6,725.82, ahead of the release of important US data and as the Federal Reserve begins its two-day policy meeting. Both retail sales and consumer confidence figures in the US will be released later today, with the former expected to remain little changed, while the latter is tipped to fall in October. The index for consumer sentiment will drop to 75 this month from 79.7 in September, economists forecast.Germany's consumer confidence figures will also be unveiled. GfK's forward-looking consumer sentiment indicator is pegged to climb to 7.2 in November from 7.1 the prior month.Later on the Fed will kick off its two-day policy meeting and will announce its decision on whether to alter its monetary policy a day later.Over in Asia, stocks performed in a mixed fashion overnight, with both the Shanghai and Nikkei registering losses, while the Hang Seng and Sensex posted decent gains. Back in the UK, the country's six biggest energy providers will today stand before a group of MPs to face criticism over recent price rises. In other news, Standard Chartered reported a slight increase in operating profit for the year to date due to tight cost controls. In a trading update for the nine months ended September 30th, the financial services company said it delivered a resilient performance despite an uncertain macro environment.Lloyds Banking Group swung to a pre-tax profit of £1.7bn in the first nine months of the year from a loss of £607m in the same period in 2012. The statutory result included a further £750m charge to cover the costs of the payment protection insurance claims and the bank said underlying profits were up 136% to £4.4bn in the first nine months of the year.Wood Group has secured a two-year contract extension from Shell UK to deliver integrated services to two gas plants in Scotland, continuing a previous contract awarded in 2007. The deal is the eighth North Sea contract extension awarded to the group in the past year. Transport group Stagecoach revealed trading had worsened in UK rail but improved in the US Megabus unit in the first 24 weeks of the year. Ahead of a meeting with analysts and on the day the East Coast franchise prospectus is released, the FTSE 100 group said trading remained "satisfactory" and that there was "no significant change" to expected annual earnings.NR