{"id":64109,"date":"2018-02-16T14:21:01","date_gmt":"2018-02-16T14:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bnreport.com\/what-you-need-to-know-before-the-open-20\/"},"modified":"2018-02-16T14:21:01","modified_gmt":"2018-02-16T14:21:01","slug":"what-you-need-to-know-before-the-open-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bnreport.com\/en\/what-you-need-to-know-before-the-open-20\/","title":{"rendered":"What you need to know before the open"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today's top story:<\/strong>City of London's Council muddled over honour for Aung San Suu Kyi<\/a><\/p>\n

Today's leader:<\/strong>MPs' recess shows how little dialogue goes on normally \u2013 and we're all the poorer for it<\/a><\/p>\n

Inflation chatter will be warming up again today, as UK retail sales figures are due at the end of the week in which it was revealed that January's consumer spending was the worst in years<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This week also saw inflation refuse to budge<\/a> from a relatively high three per cent. Such data has pushed the Bank of England<\/a> to consider raising interest rates sooner<\/a> than they might have done \u2013 although a Bank survey released earlier this week<\/a> also hinted that wage rises might be on the way, which would help to battle inflationary pressures.<\/p>\n

Ending a week that has \u2013 so far \u2013 been decidedly calmer for markets than the last, the FTSE 100 is set to open around 30 points higher this morning after gaining 20.8 points to end yesterday up 0.29 per cent. The Dax is due to open 46 points higher and the CAC up 15 points.<\/p>\n

Asian stocks rose for a fifth consecutive session in early Friday trading, although many markets were closed for the New Year. They were supported by a weakening US dollar, which slipped to a three-year low early this morning. At the time of writing, the pound is worth around $1.414. Meanwhile after recent yo-yoing, bitcoin is back above $10,000<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Corporate news<\/h2>\n