7.00am: FTSE seen lower, earnings and ECB rate move in focus

FTSE 100 set to open lower on Thursday after US markets lost their earlier gains and as Facebook (NASDAQ:META) owner Meta saw its shares tumble after the bell following weaker than expected third quarter earnings.

Spread betting companies are calling London’s blue chip index down by around 20 points.

US markets ended a volatile session in subdued fashion with the Dow Jones posting its fourth consecutive day of gains (just) but with tech stocks under pressure following disappointing results from Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT).

At the close the DJIA was up 3 points at 31,840, the S&P 500 was down 28 points, or 0.74%, at 3,831 and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 228 points, or 2.04%, to 10,971.

Back in Europe and attention will focus on the ECB’s interest rate decision with a 75bps increase expected.

The Bank of Canada surprised the market yesterday by hiking rates by a less than expected 50bps, with Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem going on to admit that the central bank was placing a lot more emphasis on the effects of the slowdown when crafting rate strategy going forward.

Michael Hewson chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK said: “This could have implications if the Federal Reserve were to start thinking the same way next week, hence the selloff in the US dollar.”

In London, a bumper corporate calendar sees results from Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LON:LLOY), Shell PLC (LON:RDSa) and Unilever PLC (LON:ULVR) amongst others.

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