Good news for workers as pay finally closes the gap with inflation, but there is gloom on the high street
- LATEST: Pay is finally catching inflation
- BREAKING: New UK unemployment figures
- Real wage squeeze is over (if you get a bonus)
- Employment at record high
- Unemployment rate at 43-year low
But in retail…..
- Kingfisher: UK market is tough
- Moss Bros: Profits warning, stock shortages
- Carpetright planning to shut stores
- Coming up: US interest rate decision tonight
Meanwhile Facebook shares are down another 2.5% at the open, in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica controversy.
Here is our latest story:
Related: Facebook scandal: I am being used as scapegoat – academic who mined data
Ahead of the Federal Reserve decision – with rates expected to rise and investors seeking hints about further increases this year – Wall Street has slipped back at the open.
With technology stocks still under pressure, both from EU tax plans and the fallout from the Facebook controversy, the Nasdaq Composite has opened down 0.21%.
Markets are pricing in a roughly 90% chance of a hike this week, the first of three or four anticipated this year. So the focus is on the dot plot and the accompanying language from chair Jay Powell. For risk, markets will want the Fed to hold off indicating 4 hikes in 2018 but keep up its confident assessment of the economy. This will in large part depend on how policymakers assess inflationary pressures – if they think inflation is coming they might accelerate the path of rate hikes. But there is a much bigger risk that the Fed sticks to three in 2018 but raises forecasts for 2019 and that could knock equities and give a boost to USD more than indicating four hikes in 2018 might…
Since the last meeting in December inflation has picked up but the pace has not really accelerated beyond the most bullish scenarios seen already…