Sterling a little weaker

The main currencies are not much changed this morning. If anything, sterling is a touch weaker against both the euro and the dollar trading at around 86p and $1.3650 respectively, while the single currency continues to hover just above the $1.17 level against the dollar

European stocks gained some ground yesterday while US equities were flat on the day, with the former ahead again at the open today. Meanwhile, in bond markets, both German and US 10-yields are steady at around -0.31% and 1.33% respectively

The OECD is forecasting world GDP growth of 5.7% for this year and 4.5% for 2022 according to its latest Outlook (both little changed from its May projections), saying that ‘the economic impact of the Delta variant has so far been relatively mild in countries with high vaccination rates, but has lowered near-term momentum elsewhere.’ It also notes that higher commodity prices and global shipping costs are currently adding to consumer price inflation in many economies and accounts for most of the inflation upturn seen over the past year

The Fed concludes its two-day meeting today. It is likely to keep interest rates unchanged but indicate that it is likely to being slowing the pace of its monthly bond purchases before year-end

Data due today includes consumer confidence in the Euro area and existing home sales in the US