news/AZN/2023.02.09/FTSE 100 stays composed despite hawkish Fed.txt

(Alliance News) - Stocks in London were set to open higher on Thursday, despite investors in New York taking fright from hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials. IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 index of large-caps to open up 17.7 points, 0.2%, at 7,902.87 on Thursday. The FTSE 100 index closed up 20.46 points, or 0.3% at 7,885.17 on Wednesday. The blue-chip index hit an intraday high of 7,934.30, surpassing the record peak set on Friday. "We saw another day of record highs for the FTSE 100 yesterday, as European markets once again outperformed markets in the US, which slid back reversing their gains from the previous day," said CMC Markets' Michael Hewson. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.6%, the S&P 500 down 1.1% and the Nasdaq Composite down 1.7%"While US stocks once again shrugged off Fed chair Powell's comments on Tuesday, a succession of Fed speakers on Wednesday doubled down on the hawkish chatter, with Fed Vice Chair John Williams echoing Powell's comments but going a bit further by saying that rates might need to remain restrictive for a few years, which was a significant departure from recent comments from other Fed policymakers," Hewson added.In comments reported by Bloomberg, Williams advocated for a "sufficiently restrictive stance of policy", adding that interest rates were "barely into restrictive territory". "We're going to need to maintain that for a few years to make sure we get inflation to 2%, and then eventually over time we'll get interest rates presumably back to more normal levels," Williams said. The dollar was somewhat softer in early London trade on Thursday.Sterling was quoted at USD1.2100, higher than USD1.2084 at the London equities close on Wednesday. The euro traded at USD1.0740, higher than USD1.0734. Against the yen, the dollar was quoted at JPY131.26, little changed from JPY131.29.In Asia on Thursday, the Nikkei 225 index closed down 0.1%. In China, the Shanghai Composite was up 1.1%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was 1.5%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney closed down 0.5%.Gold was quoted at USD1,881.19 an ounce early Thursday, higher than USD1,878.10 on Wednesday. Brent oil was trading at USD85.15 a barrel, edging up from USD84.01.In Thursday's UK corporate calendar, there are full-year results from drug maker AstraZeneca, cigarette maker British American Tobacco, and soap and ice cream maker Unilever.In the economic calendar, there will be German inflation figures at 0700 GMT, and the US will publish its weekly unemployment insurance claims report at 1330 GMT.By Elizabeth Winter, Alliance News senior markets reporterComments and questions to newsroom@alliancenews.comCopyright 2023 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.