FTSE 100 preview: Footsie to keep climbing
The Footsie index is seen opening down 9 to 19 points, or up to 0.4% lower today, according to financial bookmakers, as investors pause for breath after hitting a 10-month high on Friday.
Market watcher: Latest news from the stock exchange
The UK blue-chip index closed up 41.03 points, or 0.9%, at 4,731.56 on Friday, its highest level since October 7 last year, having reached an intra-day peak of 4,743.62. Gains on Friday surpassed a previous high for 2009 at 4,710.23 hit earlier in the week.
Asian markets posted good gains on Monday following on from strength in New York on Friday after July's US jobs report proved less bleak than feared and underpinned hopes the economy was on track for recovery.
No important UK data will be released today, however, and press reports said the Bank of England would downgrade its growth forecasts and issue a warning this week that the UK economy risks slumping into a debt deflation trap.
The Daily Telegraph said on Monday that BoE Governor Mervyn King would use the Bank's Inflation Report on Wednesday to say the risk of such a slump was one of the main reasons behind the bank's surprise decision last week to extend its quantitative easing programme.
After Friday's better-than-expected jobs report, the only US data of interest on Monday will be the July US employment index.
Most attention will be directed towards the two-day Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting, which kicks off on Tuesday, with a decision on US interest rates and the Fed's quantitative easing policy expected at 18:15 GMT on Wednesday.
UK stocks to watch on Monday
Shares in the global miner Rio Tinto fell as much as 2% in Australia on Monday as investors turned a little nervous after China stepped up espionage allegations against the world's second-largest iron ore miner.
Construction group Morgan Sindall reports first-half results.
The clean energy company ITM Power holds a shareholders meeting.
Irish building supplies firm Grafton Group posts first-half results.
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