London pre-open: US Fed minutes, jobs data in focus

Stocks are set to start the session little changed as investors weigh up the minutes of the US central bank's last policy meeting which revealed unexpected splits on several key policy questions and ahead of monthly US jobs data due out later in the session and on Friday.

The Footsie was being called to start the day unchanged from Wednesday's closing value of 7,367.60.

According to the minutes of the US Federal Reserve's 13-14 June meeting, officials were split about whether to announce the start of the slow process of winding down their balance sheet in the next few months or whether to wait until later in the year in order to gather more information on the outlook for the economy and inflation.

Policymakers were also divided between those who advocated allowing unemployment to fall beneath their target for full employment for a sustained period and those who appeared to worry about financial stability risks.

"[Several other participants] expressed concern that a substantial and sustained unemployment undershooting might make the economy more likely to experience financial instability or could lead to a sharp rise in inflation."

"The Federal Reserve’s (Fed) June meeting minutes gave rise to confusion rather than providing a clearer insight on the FOMC’s next policy move. Minutes revealed increasing tensions at the heart of the committee regarding the shortfall in inflation and a lack of understanding regarding the financial conditions that have not tightened following the Fed rate hikes since December," said Ipek Ozkardeskaya at LCG.

For their part, analysts at Berenberg Capital Markets were of the following view: "We have continually pointed out the discrepancy between the Fed tightening monetary policy and long-term US yields (and broader financial conditions) moving in the opposite direction. These very supportive financial conditions will make it more palatable for the Fed to raise its policy rate in spite of low inflation."

In UK news, Barclays's chairman Jon McFarlane told Bloomberg TV he was confident the City would retain the majority of its euro clearing business.

Also worth taking note of, ahead of the G-20 leaders meeting next weekend, the International Monetary Fund warned against trade protectionism.

"Myopic pursuit of zero-sum policies can only end by hurting all countries, as history shows," the Washington-based lender said.

No significant data releases were scheduled for Thursday in the UK.

Later on in the session, Stateside investors will be waiting for the latest monthly ADP private sector payrolls report at 1315 BST, followed by the ISM services sector gauge at 1500 BST and weekly official crude oil inventory data a half hour later.

All of the above, naturally, ahead of Friday's all-important monthly US jobs report.

Homebuilder Bovis reports increasing costs

Bovis Homes said trading conditions for the first six months of 2017 were in-line with management expectations albeit amid increased build costs. Its rate of production slowed in the first half, with completions running at 1,512 which was down from 1,601 in the year-ago period. Roughly three-quarters of that were private units. Meanwhile, sales ran at a rate of 0.48 net private reservations per site per week, versus 0.62 for the comparable period of 2016. It opened 15 new sites during the period.

Easyjet reported an 11.3% increase in the number of passengers it carried in June to reach 7.720m, alongside a 0.8 percentage point improvement in its so-called load factor to 94.8%. On a rolling 12-month basis, passenger numbers were up by 8.7% to 78.11m and load factor improved by 0.5 percentage points to 92.1%.

Just Eat has appointed Peter Plumb as its new chief executive, following the death of previous boss John Hughes. Plumb, who stepped down as CEO of Moneysupermarket.com Group after eights years in May, will pick up the reins from chief financial officer Paul Harrison, who has filled in on an interim basis and will now return to his normal role.

Reckitt Benckiser updated the market on the cyberattack which happened on 27 June on Thursday, claiming it had made “good progress” in getting key applications and systems “back on track” so it could resume normal trading with all of its customers and partners. The FTSE 100 consumer products group said it believed the issue was now “materially contained,” adding it was continuing to work with IT partners to resolve remaining issues. It confirmed Mead Johnson’s systems had not been impacted by the attack.