Wednesday preview: Fed's Powell, UK CPI in the spotlight

Wednesday will bring with it the week's main event, Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell's testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services committee.

Powell was scheduled to begin his remarks at 1500 BST and investors were eager for any further insights into the central bank's outlook for interest rates.

Against that backdrop, at 0700 BST the Office for National Statistics would release consumer and factory gate price data for May.

Consensus was for a dip in the annual rate of increase in consumer prices from 8.7% in April to 8.4% during May.

Core CPI on the other hand was expected to remain at 6.8%.

Overnight meanwhile, the Bank of Japan would release the minutes of its last policy meeting.

And at 1830 BST Bank of Canada would publish its Summary of Deliberations.