Today, the Bank of England unveiled the results of its annual stress test of major banks, namely Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC, NatWest, Santander UK, Standard Chartered, Nationwide Building Society and Virgin Money.  It said "the major UK banks are resilient to a severe stress scenario that incorporates persistently higher advanced economy inflation, increasing global interest rates, deep simultaneous recessions with materially higher unemployment in the UK and global economies, and sharp falls in asset prices."

It added that the country’s households were also proving resilient in this higher rate environment: "The proportion of households with high debt service ratios ... has increased and is expected to continue to do so through 2023. But it is projected to remain some way below the historic peak reached in 2007."

The FTSE 100 was up 0.7% this morning after the announcement. Commodities continued to outperform.

The focus of investors is now on the U.S. consumer prices data due later today.

Among stocks, AstraZeneca rose 1% after UBS upgraded its rating to "buy" from "neutral".

Things to read today:

Is China Mired in a “Balance Sheet Recession”? (WSJ)

The Future of UK Pensions: delayed and confused (Financial Times)

Inside the murky world accelerating Russia’s economic meltdown (Daily Telegraph)