Mid-caps shine but AB Foods holds back FTSE 100

Stocks ended mixed in London on Wednesday with US rate hike worries and a decline in Primark owner Associated British Foods hitting blue-chips, while mid-caps prospered. The FTSE 100 closed down 18.78 points, 0.2%, at 10,478.34. The FTSE 250 ended up 316.62 points, 1.4%, at 23,330.07, and the AIM All-Share rose 3.88 points, 0.5%, at 776.05. In European equity markets on Wednesday, the CAC 40 in Paris ended down 0.8%, while the DAX 40 rose 0.2% in Frankfurt. In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.4%, the S&P 500 rose 0.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite was up slightly. At his first meeting in charge of the FOMC last month, Mr Warsh had delivered a similar message, with his fellow policymakers flagging that a rate hike may be in the offing for later in the year to combat inflation. US bond yields spiked, with the 10-year Treasury yield trading at 4.47% on Wednesday, widening from 4.40% on Tuesday, and the US 30-year Treasury yield stretched to 4.97% from 4.89%. On Wall Street, shares of Meta Platforms jumped 10% after a report said the social media giant is preparing to launch a cloud computing business that would sell AI computing power to outside customers. The report, published by Bloomberg, said Meta is developing plans to compete directly with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud . – Contributed 1.3273 dollars on Wednesday afternoon, up from 1.3263 dollars on Tuesday. Against the euro, sterling firmed to 1.1657 euros from 1.1614 euros on Tuesday. The euro traded lower against the greenback, at 1.1383 dollars on Wednesday against 1.1419 dollars on Tuesday. Against the yen, the dollar was trading at 162.43 yen, down from 162.60 yen on Tuesday. Euro weakness came as the eurozone’s consumer price index inflation slowed more than anticipated in June, as energy prices continued to fall month-on-month. Data published 2.8% in June from 3.2% in May, exceeding the FXStreet-cited consensus for a deceleration to 3% in June. Notably, the on-year rise in energy prices slowed to 8.7% in June from 10.8% in May, while the on-year rise in processed food prices decelerated to 3.2% from 4%. Thursday sees the June US jobs report, a day earlier than its usual Friday slot, due to the Independence Day holiday. Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB: “This week’s jobs data will be crucial information for traders. The NFP report is expected to show 113,000 non-farm payrolls were created last month. “Analysing the US jobs data that is due on Thursday will be important for traders and investors. “Kevin Warsh, the new chairman of the Federal Reserve, has stated that he thinks a rebound in productivity will keep inflation low in the long term.