FTSE 100: Wall Street lower as investors weigh hot inflation's impact on Fed and London closes in red

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JD.com said that “following careful consideration, it does not intend to make an offer for Currys”.

The Chinese company said in a short statement:

Currys shares slumped to 52.45p, and are currently trading 3.3% lower at 57p.

Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust has announced a £1bn share buyback in an attempt to prop up its share price.

The trust has already bought back £353m of shares in the past two years, and will increase buybacks to at least £1bn over the next two years, it told shareholders on Friday.

The trust is trading at a 13% discount to its net asset value.

Chairman Justin Dowley said: "We remain committed to using share repurchases strategically to enhance liquidity in our shares and to seek to facilitate trading around net asset value.

Our company has a strong balance sheet, and its portfolio companies are delivering strong operational results.

“We are acting upon this investment opportunity by materially increasing the capital available to our liquidity policy over the next two years with the aim of maximising returns for our shareholders."

Over a third of Britons expect interest rates to rise over the next 12 months despite market bets of several cuts starting in June.

In a survey conducted for the Bank of England, when asked about the future path of interest rates, 36% of respondents expected rates to rise over the next 12 months, down from 44% in November 2023.

Some 26% said they expected rates to stay about the same over the next twelve months, down from 29% in November 2023.

When it came to inflation, the British public’s expectations over the coming year have fallen to a near three-year low.

Britons are now expecting price growth in the year ahead to fall to 3%, while in November they had expected it to move to 3.3%.

This is the lowest level in nearly three years and is closer to the long-term average, and will bolster the case for interest rate cuts this year.

Bitcoin extended a retreat from its latest record high amid a rethink on US interest rate cuts.

The cryptocurrency is now trading at around $66,977, down 8.2% on the day. The token set a fresh all-time peak of almost $73,798 a day earlier.

City Index analyst Matt Simpson said: "Bitcoin has an established history of getting volatile and ruthless after hitting a record high. And not only did it recently hit a record high, but it looks like the Federal Reserve won’t be as dovish as traders had hoped."

Investor inflation jitters have not been far from the surface over recent months and the latest release resulted in markets touching on the brakes, Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said. He added:

UK competition regulators on Friday said they were taking an initial look into Barratt's £2.52bn takeover of homebuilding rival Redrow.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which has not yet launched a formal investigation, is seeking initial views on the impact that the deal could have on competition in the UK.

Interested parties have until April 2 to submit their views before the regulator begins the next phase of its inquiry.

Barratt agreed to buy Redrow in early February to capitalise on a fledgling recovery in the housing market and cement its position as one of the largest homebuilders in the UK.

Oil prices edged lower on Friday but were on track to gain nearly 4% for the week, boosted by the International Energy Agency revising its 2024 oil demand forecasts higher.

West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) slipped 0.5% and was trading at $80 per barrel. Brent (BZ=F) crude slipped 0.4% but is still trading at almost $85 per barrel.

US stocks slid on Thursday following the release of another hotter-than-expected inflation print. The reading served as one of the last pieces of data that could sway the Federal Reserve at its policy meeting next week.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) and and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) fell about 0.3%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) declined closer to 0.4%. Shares of Nvidia (NVDA) and Tesla (TSLA) both fell roughly 4%, continuing a slide from the previous session.

The small cap benchmark Russell 2000 (^RUT) Index was one of the biggest laggards on the day, falling about 2% as investors scaled back bets for a June interest rate cut.

Nvidia (NVDA) shares fell 3.2%

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In Asia, the Hang Seng (^HSI) in Hong Kong fell 1.4% to 16,720 while the Shanghai Composite (000001.SS) rose 0.5% to 3,054 points. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 (^N225) finished lower, slipping 0.3% to 38,707 points.

Meanwhile, the People’s Bank of China kept its one-year medium term lending facility rate unchanged at 2.5%.

Vodafone (VOD.L) has confirmed the sale of its Italian business to Swisscom for €8bn (£6.8bn), weeks after rejecting an approach by French billionaire Xavier Niel.

The British telecoms giant also announced a €4bn (£3.4bn) share buyback plan.

On Friday, the London-listed company said the move represented an “attractive valuation” and marked the final step of its strategy to sell off parts of its European portfolio.

Swisscom will pay 100% cash in a move which will be fully debt-financed.

As part of the transaction, the two firms have agreed that Vodafone will continue to provide “certain services” to Swisscom over the next five years.