FTSE 100 and European markets close on high but US stocks tepid as Nvidia leads gains

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Some commentary from Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at online trading platform IG:

Shares in Dell Technologies were higher after it CEO Michael Dell announced a partnership with Nvidia (NVDA) to construct an AI Factory designed to boost the capabilities of Grok, an AI model developed by Elon Musk's company, xAI.

Musk has told investors that his artificial intelligence startup xAI is planning to build a supercomputer to power the next version of its AI chatbot Grok, according to a report by the Information in May.

The stock also got a boost this week after Morgan Stanley reiterated its Overweight rating on the computer company, emphasising its status as a top pick for 2024 by the firm.

John Fraser-Tucker, head of mortgages at Mojo Mortgages said:

Two policymakers Two policymakers again voted to cut rates to 5%. Swati Dhingra and Dave Ramsden were outvoted 7-2 on the decision to cut.

The hold is down to expectations that energy prices will begin to ramp up again later this year, meaning overall CPI will go up.

Liz Edwards, money expert at personal finance comparison site finder.com shares her thoughts:

As expected, the Bank of England has held firm on its base interest rate, holding it at 5.25% for the seventh consecutive time.

The move by Threadneedle Street's monetary policy committee comes two weeks before Britons head to the polls to decide the next government.

Inflation fell back to 2% in May but persistent price rises in the services sector, key to understanding domestic price pressures in the country’s services-oriented economy, raised concern among members of the MPC.

Economists noted it was unlikely that the Bank of England would be willing to start cutting interest rates in the middle of an election campaign.

The FCA says it worked with the Met Police in London on the arrest of two individuals suspected of running an unregistered crypto business in the UK. The business is said to have exchanged around £1bn in cryptoassets.

The FCA inspected the offices associated with the suspects and the police seized several digital devices during searches of two residential London properties.

Both suspects were interviewed under caution by the FCA and released on bail. The FCA’s investigation into the case is ongoing.

Cryptoasset exchange providers must be registered with the FCA and comply with the UK money laundering regulations in order to operate legally in the UK.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has said of Liz Truss's disastrous mini budget that it is not "fair" to say it caused “sustained economic scarring”.

Speaking at The Times CEO summit, he said his call up to be Chancellor was one of the most dramatic weeks of his life, adding: "I think if you look at us now with lower inflation, higher growth than most major economies we’re actually doing very well.”

PA reporting

The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said today that it will keep the practices of trading apps under review, after research showed that using things like push notifications and prize draws potentially has an outsize detrimental effect on consumers behaviour.

These practices increased the likelihood of taking risky bets, the regulator said, particularly in some subgroups, including those with low financial literacy, women and younger participants (18-34).

“Trading apps have the potential to transform retail investments, but some in-app features might be pushing consumers towards more frequent or riskier trading, which isn’t right for everyone," said Sheldon Mills, executive director of consumers and competition at the FCA.

YouGov shares have plummeted this morning following a shock profit warning for the year.

This is down to weak sales in its data products division, and challenges in the European, Middle East and African markets, it said.

Sainsbury’s has struck a deal to sell its banking business to lender NatWest.

The supermarket has agreed to pay the state-owned lender £125m to take on the assets, which include about one million customer accounts.

The deal will see NatWest take on about one million customer accounts, as well as £1.4bn of unsecured personal loans, £1.1bn of credit card balances and about £2.6bn of customer deposits.

Sainsbury's said customers would "not need to take any action" and said there would be no immediate changes to their terms and conditions. The deal is expected to complete in the first half of next year.

Read more: Trending tickers: latest investor updates on Nvidia, Constellation, Dell and NatWest

The pound is making some small moves today, with traders behaving cautiously, sending it slightly lower against the dollar. Earlier in the week it was closer to $1.28, but it's now firmly hovering around $1.27, down about 0.1%.

Sterling gained on Wednesday after the inflation print.

Lots of similar comments coming through on the potential rate path this morning. Here's PwC's chief economist Barret Kupelian:

More news on rates this morning: the Swiss central bank has cut its policy rate by 25bps.

Asian markets were mixed on Thursday, following a bullish start led by tech stocks. The moves come as China's central bank kept its one-year lending benchmark rate on hold at 3.45%. It also held the five-year prime rate at 3.95%.

The one-year rate guides the majority of corporate and household loans, while the five-year steers real estate debt.

The Hang Seng (^HSI) in Hong Kong fell 0.6%, while the SSE Composite (000001.SS) was down 0.4%. The Nikkei (^N225) in Japan ticked up 0.

US markets were closed on Wednesday for the Juneteenth holiday. Major indexes closed Tuesday cautiously higher, and futures contracts are pointing to a higher open later on.

Hello from London. It's a big week in the UK with the inflation print yesterday, and interest rates day today. We should get some news from the Bank of England around 12..

Later on there's unemployment data from the US and consumer confidence readings from the EU.

Let's get to it.