Stocks in London slid further down on Wednesday, with the FTSE 100 down by 0.22% at 7,471.5 and the FTSE 250 down 0.01% at 19,305.2, with investors worldwide braced for news from a meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with a keynote from Jerome Powell, head of the Federal Reserve System, America’s central bank this week.
The meeting starts on Thursday, with the theme of ‘Macroeconomic Policy in an Uneven Economy’.
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell said, “Markets seem to have lost their momentum following the rally since mid-June. Investors have become nervous once again, with all eyes on Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell and what he says this coming Friday,”
“Investors are worried that the US central bank will continue to raise interest rates at a rapid pace, despite lower-than-expected inflation figures in July. If this happens, we could well see another leg down in global markets as the summer draws to a close.”
It wasn’t all bad news for investors, with booming commodity prices helping global dividend pay-outs hit record highs, exceeding pre-pandemic volumes in the last quarter.
Meanwhile industrial software company Aveva (GB:AVV) was the top gainer of the day, shooting up almost 28% on news that French industrial group Schneider (SNIA) was considering a buyout and online car dealership Lookers (GB:LOOK) gained 7% thanks to relatively strong first-half figures in a weak British market.
British business news
UK faces ‘cost of doing business crisis’ as energy bills rise fourfold (FT)
City braced to lose another tech giant – Aveva (The Times)
Covid-style bailouts for energy bills considered as Government warned of civil unrest (Telegraph)
