Date: Thursday 18 Jun 2015
LONDON (ShareCast) - 1630:Close Stocks moved higher following a slightly more dovish than expected US FOMC meeting on Wednesday evening. In the wake of the same, Goldman Sachs pushed out its call for the first rate hike from the Fed to December, from September beforehand. Miners led gains in a volatile day of trading which at one point saw sharp losses over on the Continent. Nevertheless, traders were expectant ahead of Thursday evening´s scheduled meeting of the Eurogroup. To take note of, euro/dollar may be carving out a so-called inverted 'head and shoulders' trading pattern. FTSE 100 up 27.33 points to 6,707.88.
1513: The average rate for a US 30-year fixed-rate mortgage declined in the week to 18 June, figures released on Thursday showed. The 30-year rate declined from an eight-month high of 4.04% to 4%, a report from federally controlled mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said.
1500: The Philly Fed index jumped to 15.2 in June from 6.7 in May, above the forecast of 9.0. Meanwhile, the US leading indicators index rose 0.7% in May after 0.7% growth previously, ahead of the 0.4% increase expected.
1330: US consumer prices rose by 0.4% month-on-month in May after edging higher by 0.1% in the month before (consensus: 0.5%). At the 'core' level they increased by 0.1% over the month (consensus: 0.2%). Initial weekly unemployment claims decreased by 12,000 in the last reference week, to hit 267,000 (consensus: 277,000).
1130: Following yesterday´s jump in stock of Berkeley Group technical analysts at Sharecast comment that one option for traders might be to go long at the middle of the bullish gap left on price charts Wednesday with a stop-loss at the top of Tuesday´s japanese candle.
1100: If shares in RBS can overcome technical resistance in the 400 to 414p area they may be headed higher towards 600p, technical analysts at Sharecast say.
0955: Centrica could benefit from the decision from the Department of Energy and Climate Change to exclude new onshore wind farms from a subsidy scheme from next year, Accendo Markets analyst said. The rule will be implemented from 1 April 2016, a year earlier than expected. Augustin Eden from Accendo said shares in Centrica may be "flapping the switch" from downtrend to uptrend following the news, as it has been fightig against cheap oil and the impact of heavily subsidised and relatively feeble and unpopular renewables. "Natural gas will find support as the soon-to-be unchallenged best alternative to both coal and oil," the broker added.
0930: UK retail sales volumes excluding automobiles edged higher by 0.2% month-on-month in May (consensus: -0.2%). The previous month´s print was revised lower to show a rise of 0.8% instead of a preliminary estimate of 1.2%.
0903: Credit Suisse has upped its target price on Lloyds to 80p from 72p.
0902: A weaker dollar on dovish Fed comments have given metal prices a boost, lifting stocks across the mining sector including Randgold, Fresnillo, Anglo American and BHP Billiton. However, a number of blue chips are trading in the red after going ex-dividend, such as Land Securities, 3i Group and Severn Trent. The FTSE 100 is down 12 points at 6,669
0850: UK stocks have opened lower ahead of a Eurogroup meeting regarding Greece in due on Thursday. CMC Markets analysts said the meeting would be the "last chance saloon" for Greece to agree a deal, and believe that "regrettably the meeting is likely to come and go without any deal given that Greek officials have refused to submit any fresh proposals". Investors were also digesting a Fed decision to lower its GDP growth forecast for the year as it kept the range for its main policy rate unchanged at between 0% and 0.25%, as expected by economists. In corporate news, British discount retailer Poundland is down 5% after warning its first half of the year has been subdued due to slower sales growth.
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