Wednesday preview: UK CPI, Fed minutes in focus

The market spotlight in the middle of the week will be squarely on consumer and producer price figures due out in the UK.

At 0600 BST, the Office for National Statistics is expected to announce that the annual rate of increase in the headline rate of consumer prices slowed to 2.1% in May after a 3.2% increase in April.

Improvement in core CPI on the other hand was forecast to have been much less, from 4.2% to 3.6%.

For their part, economists at Citi continued to judge a June cut to Bank Rate as 'on track' with services inflation likely to undershoot in May, whilst the remaining stickiness in prices would start to undershoot as the output gap widened.

"We think the MPC will respond with an increasingly aggressive easing cycle, with successive cuts from September."

Later in the session, at 1800 BST, the US Federal Reserve would release the minutes of its last policy meeting.

US existing home sales data for April were due out at 1400 BST.

The results of the latest 20-year US Treasury auction at 1700 BST were likely to also be monitored by traders.

In Asia Pacific, rate-setters in New Zealand were due to meet overnight to decide on monetary policy.

Wednesday 22 May

INTERIMS

Benchmark Holdings , Benchmark Holdings , Hardide, IntegraFin Holding, Mitchells & Butlers

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Softcat

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Crude Oil Inventories (US) (15:30)

Existing Home Sales (US) (15:00)

FOMC Interest Rate Minutes (US) (19:00)

MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (12:00)

GMS

Invinity Energy Systems , Mindflair

FINALS

British Land Company, C&C Group (CDI), C&C Group (CDI), Great Portland Estates, HICL Infrastructure , Marks & Spencer Group, RS Group, Severn Trent, SSE

AGMS

4Imprint Group, Adriatic Metals , Arbuthnot Banking Group, Bango, BlackRock Latin American Inv Trust, Boku, Inc (DI) Reg S Cat 3/144A, Empiric Student Property , Fidelity Japan Trust, M&G, Ming Yang Smart Energy Group Limited Gdr (Each Repr 5 A Shs Rmb1) (Reg S), Mortgage Advice Bureau (Holdings) , MusicMagpie, Niox Group, Playtech, PPHE Hotel Group Ltd, Riverstone Credit Opportunities Income, Riverstone Credit Opportunities Income, Schroders Capital Global Innovation Trust, Staffline Group, Staffline Group, Stelrad Group , The Artisanal Spirits Company, VH Global Sustainable Energy Opportunities , Zinc Media Group, Zotefoams

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

4Imprint Group, Aviva, Aviva, Close Brothers Group, Empiric Student Property , Kingfisher, Regional REIT Limited

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Consumer Price Index (07:00)

Producer Price Index (07:00)

Public Sector Net Borrowing (07:00)

Retail Price Index (07:00)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Central Asia Metals, Eurocell , Harbour Energy , London Stock Exchange Group, Man Group, Merchants Trust, Phoenix Group Holdings , Smith & Nephew

Benchmark Holdings