(Reuters) -British stocks dipped on Thursday as investors grappled with the Trump administration’s shifting trade policies and parsed through quarterly reports for signs of a hit to company earnings from the ongoing trade war.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 and the midcap FTSE 250 indexes dipped 0.2% by 0954 GMT.
Global stocks have wavered this week as U.S. President Donald Trump rained attacks on Federal Reserve Chief Jerome Powell, and then retracted calls for his resignation.
Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said high tariffs between the U.S. and China were not sustainable, but also said such a move would not come unilaterally.
British stocks have bounced back from a sharp selloff induced earlier this month due to Trump’s tariff policies, although the FTSE 100 is still on course for its second consecutive month of losses. The midcap index is on track for its third month of declines.
The Bank of England is taking very seriously the risk to economic growth from the upheaval in global trade, Governor Andrew Bailey said on Wednesday, two weeks before the BoE’s next rate decision and its latest economic forecasts.
Investors assigned a near 100% probability to the BoE cutting rates by 25 basis points on May 8 and priced in rate cuts of about 89 bps by the end of this year.
Unilever inched up 0.3% after the consumer goods company beat estimates for first-quarter underlying sales growth, and said it expected the direct impact of tariffs to be limited.
ASOS climbed 1.1% after the online fashion retailer reported half-year earnings ahead of expectations and forecast further growth in 2025.
Inchcape tumbled 7.2% after the car distributor reported a decline in first-quarter revenue and said uncertainties caused by tariffs could impact supply from automakers and reduce market demand.
(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Leroy Leo)
