Wednesday preview: Fed minutes, German factory orders in focus

Financial markets' focus in the middle of the week will be on the minutes of the US central bank's policy meeting of 16 March.

In particular, they are expected to yield details on the pace at which the Federal Reserve plans to draw down its balance sheet.

Economists at Barclays Research was expecting the Fed to reach a monthly pace of run-off of roughly $80bn after just a few months.

Barclays was also looking for clues into the Fed's views on downside risks to the economy and the benchmarks that it was using to determine the pace of interest rate hikes.

On home shores, the sole economic report due out is IHS Markit's construction sector Purchasing Managers' Index for March.

In the European Union, investors will be keeping an eye out for German factory orders figures for February.

Speeches from European Central Bank vice-president, Luis de Guindos, and its chief economist, Philip Lane, are also scheduled.

Further afield, rate-setters in New Delhi are set to meet to decide on monetary policy with the consensus being for no change.

Wednesday 6 April

FINALS

Wentworth Resources NPV, Avacta Group, Gresham House Energy Storage Fund, IGas Energy, Hilton Food Group, EPWIN GROUP

INTERIMS

Applied Graphene Materials

AGMs

Downing Renewables & Infrastructure Trust, Maven Income & Growth 3 VCT

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Driver Group

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Hargreaves Services, Alumasc Group, Appreciate Group, Wilmington

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE

Alpha Real Trust Ltd.

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

PMI Construction (09:30)

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Factory Orders (GER) (07:00)

Producer Price Index (EU) (10:00)

MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (12:00)

Crude Oil Inventories (US) (15:50)