UK stocks soar after Powell's speech

UK stocks rallied today, trailing Wall Street, after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by an expected 0.5%, but ruled out a 0.75% increase at the next meeting.

However, U.S. interest rates will still climb by nearly 2 percentage points by year-end.

Today, it's the Bank of England's turn to unveil its monetary policy.  Analyst mostly forecast a 0.25% hike to 1%, but a higher rate increase is not excluded.

The FTSE 100 also got a boost by commodity stocks, as oil prices soared after the announcement of a planned European Union ban on Russian oil.

Shell said today that Q1 earnings soared 182% to $9.1 billion (£7.3 billion), boosted by higher oil and gas prices.

 

Things to read today:

The Fed has no plan, Robert Armstrong (Financial Times)

Will Rate Hikes Cause a Recession? Here’s How to Prepare (Bloomberg)

Shell profits soar to $9.1 bln amid calls for windfall tax (The Guardian)