Rachel Reeves to meet bank bosses in government’s growth agenda.
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.
The UK regulator Ofwat has opened an enforcement case into Thames Water to investigate whether its delayed delivery of environmental clean-ups means that the company has breached its obligations.
Customers have paid for Thames Water to carry out these essential environmental schemes. We take any indication that water companies are not meeting their legal obligations very seriously. Therefore, we have launched an investigation to understand whether the delayed delivery of environmental schemes means that Thames Water has breached its obligations.
If we find reason to act, we will use our full range of powers to hold Thames to account for any failures and will require them to put things right.
Today’s report is getting a decent amount of attention, in part because last January’s report saw a strong upside surprise, so the fear is we could get another new year uptick that upsets market expectations for the Fed to still cut [interest rates this year.
A set of softer-than-expected inflation numbers could help sooth inflation worries and encourage a deeper retreat in the US dollar and a further advance across the major peers. While a stronger-than-expected set of inflation figures could fuel worries, back a further rise in US [bond] yields and the dollar, and weigh on risk appetite.
10am GMT: European Central Bank member Frank Elderson speech.
1.30pm GMT: US Consumer price index for January (forecast: 2.9%; previous: 2.9%).
3pm GMT: US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell gives testimony.
3pm GMT: Bank of England policymaker Megan Greene speaks at IoD.
