London stocks are expected to open slightly lower on Thursday as investors look ahead to the European Central Bank’s latest interest rate decision.
FTSE 100 futures point to a fall of around 14 points, after the index closed up 131 points at just under 10,717 on Wednesday.
The ECB is expected to leave interest rates unchanged, with policymakers balancing easing inflation against renewed energy price pressures linked to the collapse of the US-Iran ceasefire.
Middle East tensions remained in focus after the US carried out a twelfth consecutive night of airstrikes on Iran. US Central Command said the latest attacks targeted military sites including maritime capabilities, missile and drone storage facilities, coastal surveillance sites and air defence assets. The UK has withdrawn remaining diplomatic staff from Iran as the conflict continues.
Oil prices continued to climb, with Brent crude rising another 2.2% to above US$96 a barrel, its highest level in seven weeks. The move followed another night of US strikes on Iran and reports that Yemen’s Houthi movement had targeted two oil tankers in the Red Sea.
Gold eased to US$4,127.29 an ounce from US$4,157.48. Sterling firmed to US$1.3386 from US$1.3377 at Wednesday’s London close, but slipped against the euro to EUR1.1706.
Wall Street closed mixed overnight, with the Dow Jones broadly flat, the S&P 500 down 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite up 0.6%. Alphabet beat Wall Street revenue and earnings forecasts, helped by strong growth in its cloud business. Google Cloud revenue surged 82%, underlining continued demand for artificial intelligence and enterprise computing services.
However, shares in the Google parent fell in after-hours trading after the company raised its planned capital expenditure for the year. Alphabet now expects capital spending to reach as much as US$205 billion this year.
Asian markets were higher, with Japan’s Nikkei up 1.0%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rising 1.3% and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gaining 0.5%.
Thursday’s corporate calendar includes first-quarter results from Airtel Africa and BT, alongside half-year results from Centrica.
The UK economic calendar includes the CBI business optimism index.
