FTSE 100 seen slightly higher ahead of Thursday’s open

The FTSE 100 is set to start Thursday on the front foot, albeit only slightly, as global equity markets remain in a holding pattern.

CFD firm IG Markets sees the London benchmark up 9 points making a price of 6,940 to 6,943 with just over an hour until the open.

Asian stocks were weighed by sluggishness in the Chinese economy, meanwhile, western markets are somewhat preoccupied with the mulling of inflation and future monetary concerns (though this still appears to be a problem for later).

“At the beginning of the week there was plenty of speculation that a hot reading on US CPI might give added fuel to the inflation bulls, and in doing so give policymakers at the Federal Reserve some food for thought,” said Michael Hewson, analyst at CMC Markets.

“This was never really likely given that the March CPI numbers were always going to be on the high side given that a year ago the US economy was put into lockdown, thus introducing a deflationary shock on prices, which is only now starting to reverse.

“It will probably need a much more sustained recovery in prices over the next few months before markets become too concerned, however there are still plenty of warning signs in the recent data, due to various supply chain disruptions.”

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones edged 0.16% or 53 points higher to close Wednesday at 33,730.

The S&P 500 meanwhile moved 0.4% lower to 4,124 and the Nasdaq gave up nearly 1% to finish the day at 13,857.

Coinbase, the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange, saw its first hours of trading and as predicted raced to make gains from the reference price set ahead of the listed on Nasdaq. After a US$250 reference price set a US$65bn valuation, the stock’s lowest print follow Wednesday afternoon’s first trade was marked at US$310 – it peak at US$429 intraday and closed at US$328.28.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei was practically flat changing hands marked at 29,618.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng meanwhile fell close to 1% at 28,642 and the Shanghai Composite similarly fell 0.9% to 3,388.

Around the markets

Pound: US$1.3771, down 0.06%

Gold: US$1,742 per ounce, down 0.16%

Silver: US$25.50, up 0.58%

Brent crude: US$66.62 per barrel, up 4.6%

WTI crude: US$63.04 per barrel, up 4.75%

Bitcoin: US$63,016, down 1.94%

Story by ProactiveInvestors

Source: http://www.proactiveinvestors.com/companies/news/946644/ftse-100-seen-slightly-higher-ahead-of-thursdays-open-946644.html