FTSE edges lower as investors eye Powell’s speech

Leading shares are on the slide after a bright start to the year, as investors focus again on the prospects for interest rates.

The FTSE 100, which hit its highest levels for more than three years yesterday, is down 23.82 points or 0.31% at 7701.12 in early trading.

Richard Hunter, head of markets at interactive investor, said; “For the first time this year, the index eased from a generally positive direction of travel, although remaining ahead by 3% so far in 2023. Declines were largely driven by weakness in the mining sector, alongside downgrades to the likes of Entail and Next which dampened sentiment.”

All eyes will be on US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell when he speaks later, although it unclear how much new information will emerge.

Jim Reid at Deutsche Bank said: “[Powell will] be speaking at an event on central bank independence at 14:00 London time. It is uncertain whether the topic in question will lead to an in-depth policy discussion, but if we do get any, a key question will be whether he entertains the prospect of a further downshift in the pace of rate hikes to 25bps. That’s currently the base case in markets, but clearly the consumer price index release on Thursday will be an influence on this and to future FOMC meetings too.”

Powell’s speech in Stockholm follows hawkish comments from Fed members yesterday.

Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said markets expected the Fed to slow the pace of its rate hikes from 50 basis points in December to 25 next month.