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London open: Stocks track Wall St lower after Fed disappoints; BoE eyed
London stocks fell in early trade on Thursday, taking their cue from Fed-fuelled losses on Wall Street following a less dovish than expected policy announcement from the US central bank, as investors eyed the latest rate decision from the Bank of England.
At 0835 GMT, the FTSE 100 was down 1.4% to 6,670.32.
Stocks in the US slumped to a 15-month low on Wednesday after the Fed hiked interest rates by 25 basis points for the fourth time this year, but lowered projections for future rate hikes and economic growth and downplayed the recent turmoil in financial markets.
The US central bank said it now expects two more rate hikes next year, down from a previous projection of three, but disappointing market participants who were pricing in just one. The Fed also cut its GDP growth estimate for this year by 0.1 percentage points to 3%, while the 2019 growth outlook was reduced by 0.2 percentage points to 2.3%.
“With the vote unanimous and the median rate projection for end-2019 revised down by only 20bp, this is hardly the ‘dovish hike’ that some were anticipating,” said Paul Ashworth, chief US economist at Capital Economics.
“The statement issued after the meeting had little to say about the market turmoil in recent weeks. Economic growth was still described as ‘strong’. The only nod to the sell-off in equities and credit markets is that, although the FOMC still thinks the balance of risks is ‘roughly balanced’, in an addition not included before, it ‘will continue to monitor global and economic financial developments’.”
London Capital Group analyst Jasper Lawler said the tweaks to the policy statement weren’t dovish enough for the market.
“Going into the announcement traders were braced for a much more dovish Fed, given the mounting concerns over the health of the global economy. Questions were being raised as to whether the Fed could even hike given the growing risks. Whilst the Fed’s subtle tweaks to the statement, GDP and inflation outlook cast acknowledgment to the market’s concerns, the changes were by no means significant.”
With the Fed out of the way, market participants will turn their attention to the Bank of England, which is due to make its own policy announcement at 1200 GMT, with no change expected to interest rates.
“Whilst wage growth is a solid 3.3% and inflation above the target 2%, Brexit uncertainty will mean another wait and see BoE meeting,” said Lawler.
Ahead of that, UK retail sales are due to be published by the Office for National Statistics at 0930 GMT and the CBI will reveal the results of its retail sector survey at 1100 GMT.
In currency markets, the pound was up 0.4% against the dollar at 1.2660 and down 0.1% versus the euro at 1.1077.
In corporate news, Stagecoach declined as it agreed to sell its North America bus and coach division to a US private equity firm for $271.4m (£214m).
Construction, services and property group Kier tumbled after investors bought up just 38% of the new shares it issued as part of a rights issue fundraising.
AstraZeneca was in the red even as the pharmaceuticals giant said two clinical trials of its Roxadustat drug showed positive results for the treatment of patients with anaemia in chronic kidney disease.
Oil giants BP and Shell both seeped lower as oil prices resumed their drop amid worries about oversupply, with West Texas Intermediate down 2.2% at $47.14 a barrel and Brent crude 1.6% lower at $56.35.
Greencore bucked the downtrend as the sandwich maker said it would pay 195p a share to shareholders as part of already announced £509m buyback.
Shares in Coats weaved their way higher after the industrial thread maker said it had bought Asia-based material planning company ThreadSol for up to $12m in cash.
In broker note action, Ashmore and Funding Circle were cut to ‘sell’ at Citi, while Man Group was downgraded to ‘neutral’.
Berkeley Group, Burberry, United Utilities, Countryside Properties, Games Workshop and Superdry were among the companies whose stock went ex-dividend.
