The market awaits the BCE meeting and earnings reports

Higher-than-expected UK inflation hit investor sentiment and dashed hopes of March rate cuts. Expectations have now shifted to June, with BCE head Christine Lagarde saying that it was more plausible that rate cuts would start in the summer.

The LSE remained in the green yesterday ahead of Thursday’s ECB meeting, boosted by real estate and banking stocks. It also benefited from the momentum created by Wall Street’s AI led rally.

Mining companies, in particular, benefited from rising metal prices due to reports of China considering significant financial measures to stabilize its stock market.

Today's session will be marked by the first big salvo of corporate results of the week on both sides of the Atlantic. Ericsson, Logitech and Swatch got the ball rolling this morning in Europe. They will be joined later in the day by some heavyweights in the USA: Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble Company, Netflix, Verizon Communications, Texas Instruments and General Electric among others.

In corporate news, Crest Nicholson has announced the appointment of Martyn Clark, previously with Persimmon, as its new CEO. This news comes as the company reports a 30% drop in annual profit, attributing the decline to a weaker sales market, supply chain issues, and higher interest rates. Despite these challenges, Crest Nicholson maintains its dividend and expresses cautious optimism for the housing market's future.

Bridgepoint has agreed to acquire anti-aging cosmetics group RoC Skincare from Gryphon Investors.

Things to read today:

• Why wealthy people don't have curtains (The Atlantic).
• How an over-indebted company is creating a storm for private jets (Wall Street Journal).
• If bitcoin ETFs are so great, why is bitcoin going down? (FT Alphaville).
• The Number That Hijacked the UK Housing Crisis (Bloomberg)