London stocks had dipped into the red by midday on Thursday, reversing earlier gains ahead of the latest US inflation reading, with M&S under the cosh after a trading update.
The FTSE 100 was down 0.1% at 7,645.39, as investors eyed the US consumer price index for December at 1330 GMT.
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: “Despite a barrage of corporate updates, the main thing on today’s agenda for markets is the latest inflation reading from the US.
“The consensus forecast is for the monthly rate of consumer price inflation to edge up from 0.1% in November to 0.2% in December and for the year-on-year figure to move from 3.1% to 3.2%. Core inflation (which excludes energy and food) is expected to stay static at 0.3% and dip slightly on a year-on-year basis from 4% to 3.8%.
“Hotter-than-expected inflation would go down badly with the market as it would give the Federal Reserve more reason to keep interest rates high. It…
