The FTSE 100 closed Monday’s trading session down by 0.29%, reflecting a diminishing anticipation for rate cuts from central banks such as the Bank of England and its European counterpart. This change in sentiment follows last week's unexpectedly robust US jobs data, which has led investors to reassess their outlook on interest rates. Oxford Economics commented on the situation, stating, "The Fed is expected to pause the rate-cutting cycle for at least the next several months, as the strong jobs report indicates that the economy can endure the current rate levels for the foreseeable future." In the UK, investors are poised to evaluate the latest data on inflation, gross domestic product (GDP), and retail sales that are set to be released this week.
These economic indicators are expected to have a significant influence on the Bank of England's monetary policy decisions in February. Bank of America Global Research provided insights on inflation trends, indicating, "We believe that headline inflation is likely to rise to 2.7% year-over-year in December, which is 20 basis points above the Bank of England's current forecast.
In addition, we project core inflation to be at 3.4% year-over-year, while expecting a moderation in services inflation to 4.9%. Furthermore, November's monthly GDP is projected to show a solid growth of 0.2% month-over-month." Shifting the focus to corporate developments, GSK's shares dropped by 1.37% after the announcement that they have agreed to acquire the US-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company IDRx for a total sum of up to $1.15 billion.
Meanwhile, PageGroup’s stock experienced a decline of 3.15%, marking a 16.4% year-over-year decrease in the reported gross profit for the entirety of 2024. The reported profit fell to 842.5 million pounds sterling from 1.01 billion pounds. The British recruitment firm also provided guidance indicating that the expected operating profit for the time frame is likely to be at the lower end of the market consensus range, between 49 million pounds and 58.5 million pounds..