18th Jun 2025 06:51
(Alliance News) - Stocks in London are set to open higher on Wednesday, ahead of the release of UK consumer price inflation data.
IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 to open up 8.9 points, 0.1%, on Wednesday. The index of London large-caps closed down 0.5% at 8,834.03 on Tuesday.
Sterling was quoted at USD1.3445 early Wednesday, lower than USD1.3502 at the London equities close on Tuesday.
Rising costs are set to cause "weak" business investment and weigh on the government's ambitions to accelerate growth in the UK economy, the Confederation of British Industry said.
The influential trade body's latest economic forecast indicated that the UK economy is on track to grow by 1.2% this year. It had previously predicted a rise of 1.6%.
The euro traded at USD1.1504 early Wednesday, lower than USD1.1522 late Tuesday. Against the yen, the dollar was quoted lower at JPY144.93 versus JPY145.07.
In the US on Tuesday, Wall Street ended lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 299.29 points, 0.7%, the S&P 500 down 0.8% and the Nasdaq Composite down 0.9%.
US President Donald Trump demanded "unconditional surrender" from Tehran, as Iran continues to exchange fire with US ally Israel following the first Israeli strikes on Friday.
Days after a senior US official said Trump had told Israel to back down from plans to assassinate Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the US president appeared to reverse course. "We know exactly where the so-called 'Supreme Leader' is hiding...We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now," Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
In Asia on Wednesday, the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo was up 0.8%. In China, the Shanghai Composite was up 0.1%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was down 1.2%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney was down 0.1%.
Gold was quoted at USD3,386.52 an ounce early Wednesday, higher than USD3,381.51 on Tuesday.
Brent oil was trading at USD76.29 a barrel early Wednesday, higher than USD75.45 late Tuesday.
In Wednesday's corporate calendar, AO World releases full-year results and John Wood holds its annual general meeting.
In the economic calendar on Wednesday, after UK CPI the eurozone has CPI data, and the US interest rate call is in the afternoon.
By Emma Curzon, Alliance News reporter
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