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World stocks took a breather on Thursday after a strong few weeks, while the pound lost ground as the Bank of England edged towards rate cuts and a swooning Japanese yen prompted more intervention talk in Tokyo. The pan-European STOXX 600 was consolidating two straight record highs, although London's FTSE set a new one after the BoE and Spain was lively too as bank BBVA's 12 billion euro ($12.87 billion) courtship of rival Sabadell suddenly turned hostile. The region's bond and FX markets had spent the morning taking it easy, but the day's big event - the Bank of England's decision to leave UK rates at the 5.25% level they have been since August - sparked them into life, as two of the bank's nine rate setters - one more than in April - voted for a cut.