London's FTSE 100 edged 11 points higher to 8,112 as investors readied themselves for the big US event of the day and month even with Nvidia’s latest earnings update later this evening.
There was more bad news for the government as inflation jumped 2.3% annually in October, ahead of forecasts and a significant rise from September’s 1.7%. Electricity prices rising by 7.7% and gas prices by 11.7% were blamed.
Sage Group was today’s UK standout, jumping 17% as the accountancy software group announced a £400 million buyback, an 11% jump in revenue and a 21% hike in underlying profits.
Severn Trent too saw a huge upswing in interim profits but the water utility also acknowledged that it will miss some water-safety performance metrics this financial year, something likely to add to the anger over its sewage dumping record.
Finally, insurance group Aviva is said to be facing a £350 million write-off after three waste-to-energy plant investments failed to meet expectations.