US jobless claims rise; FTSE 100 dips; rising dollar hits commodity prices – as it happened

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news

• Latest: FTSE 100 pulled lower by miners
• Oil and commodities hit by strong dollar
• US initial jobless claims rose to 412k last week
• Pound has fallen below $1.40
• Norway: First rate rise may come in September
• Introduction: Fed signals monetary policy may tighten faster
• As it happened: US Federal Reserve sees first rate rise in 2023

7.21pm BST

Back on Wall Street, there's a clear split between the fast-growing technology companies, and old economy' stocks, a day after the Federal Reserve gave markets a jolt.

Overall London markets were pulled down, not only by lingering concerns about inflation following yesterday's comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell but also by a fall in mining stocks. Investors are mulling over China's announcement that it intends to release some of its metal reserves in a bid to curtail the sharp rise in global metal prices which is having a considerable impact on its manufacturing base.

Miners also weighed down the S&P 500 which hasn't had quite the same bounce back as the Nasdaq. While the Dow built on yesterday's losses, tech stocks have simply soared. Investors seem to have quickly made peace with the prospect of rising rates at some point next year if the intervening recovery continues apace, most betting that the recovery will only fuel consumer demand and offset any downside from hikes.

Despite yesterday's pivot, the Fed is still at risk of moving too slow. The latest update to their forecasts shows that they have no clue where inflation is going and that has some traders nervous. In three months time, the Fed has bumped up their 2021 inflation forecast from 2.4% to 3.4%. While the argument for transitory inflation is strong, the Fed's reliance on actual data and not forecasts is raising the risk that they will move too slowly.

US stocks were mixed as big-tech makes a comeback as longer-term Treasury yields plunge, while a commodity selloff is dragging down some of the Dow's key components (Dow, Chevron, and Caterpillar).

7.01pm BST

Copper is another prime example of the cooling of the commodities boom:

Copper prices are down 15% in just over a month. pic.twitter.com/C5zI2LXrWe