London’s blue chip stocks paused for breath this morning after US stocks had a mixed session overnight.
All eyes will be on today’s Federal Reserve minutes as investors will no doubt look for clues on when and how far an interest rate hike is likely to be.
The Dow Jones rose 13 points while the tech-heavy Nasdaq and broader S&P 500 both inched lower.
In the UK, the FTSE 100 was 3 points lower to 6,991 led by a sharp decline in fashion brand Burberry (LON:BRBY).
The high-end designer has had to lower this year’s forecasts after its profit in the year ended 31 March were lower than anticipated. Shares eased 5% to 1,717p.
Shares in high-street bellwether Marks & Spencer (LON:MKS) fell more than 1% to 579p despite raising its dividend and announcing a share buyback.
Meanwhile, Vodafone (LON:VOD) led the risers on the index after sustaining heavy losses yesterday.
The company announced its first rise in quarterly sales in almost three years and shares were on the rise today, climbing 3.7% to 234p.
In broker news, information technology company Aveva (LON:AVV) was given an upgrade by JP Morgan despite announcing yesterday that full-year profits fell to £62mln.
The broker moved the stock to ‘neutral’ from ‘underweight’ and ramped up its target price by more than 600p.
There has been increasing speculation that the company could be taken over as its performance deteriorates. Shares in Aveva rose 8% to 2,075p.
Elsewhere, sugar specialist Tate & Lyle (LON:TATE) was given a downgrade to ‘underperform’ by Exane BNP Paribas sending shares 2% lower to 600p.
In small caps, proximity market expert Proxama (LON:PROX) announced its third contract this week, this time with the Navy Federal Credit Union.
The news comes on the same day as founder Neil Garner is to step down after another year of losses. Shares jumped 19% to 2.35p.
Rose Petroleum (LON:ROSE) said it is to raise £3.1mln in an equity fund raise. Rose will issue 1bn shares at 0.3p per share. The news sent its share price 12% lower to 0.33p.