London pre-open: Stocks expected to fall ahead of FOMC minutes

Markets are expected to open lower on Wednesday morning as traders nervously await the minutes of the latest Federal Reserve meeting. City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open down 12 points after hitting a six-week low of 6,453.46 yesterday.Market sentiment has been a little fragile ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes as speculation ramped up regarding the uncertain future of quantitative easing. The minutes are due out after UK markets have closed this evening, around 19:00.These concerns pushed the US 10-year Treasury yield to a fresh two-year high of 2.89% on Monday, before pulling back to around 2.82% on Tuesday.Senior Market Analyst Michael Hewson from CMC Markets said that the Fed will likely fail to shed any further light on what it will do at its September meeting."The only thing that might prompt some price movement is if policymakers deviate in any way from the previous minutes and give more clarity about the timing and constitution of a possible tapering programme, in terms of whether they taper the treasury purchases, or the mortgage backed security purchases," Hewson said. Greece will also again be in the spotlight today after Germany's Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble admitted that the nation will likely require a third bail-out package.   Stocks to watch Lloyds has announced that it is offloading its German life insurance business as it continues to downsize its international footprint, but will take a big loss in doing so. The UK bank said that the sale "is in line with the group's strategy of rationalising its international presence and ensuring value for shareholders". However, the company said it will lead to a loss on disposal of around £330m.Hikma Pharmaceuticals said it had made a strong start to its financial year with all of its businesses performing well as it raised its guidance to around 20% revenue growth for the year. The multinational pharmaceutical group said revenue increased by 19.9% to $638.3m in the six months ended June 30th. Pre-tax profit jumped to £111.6m during the period from £57.8m earlier. BC