The Bank of England is expected to keep interest rates at their historic low of 0.5% on Thursday. But it may announce an extension of its quantitative easing scheme under which it prints money to buy bonds in order to stimulate the economy.

At the moment it plans to spend £125bn, but it can increase that by £25bn without asking the Treasury. At the current rate of spending, the £125bn will all have been spent in the next two weeks. Taking on the extra £25bn would allow the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to see the next set of quarterly economic forecasts before it decides whether to ask the Treasury to extend the scheme further.

US data released today of note is the weekly jobless claims, reported Thursday at 1:30 p.m., and wholesale trade is expected at 3 p.m. Chain stores report their June sales throughout the morning. Thomson Reuters expects sales to be down an average 4.8%.

UK and European markets have opened up around half a percent, and U.S. markets are currently pointing to a slightly positive opening when their markets open this afternoon.

Sources: Reuters: BBC: Bloomberg: Lawshare: Deutsche Bank (db): Proquote: Financial Times: Wall Street Journal: CLSA: Sharescope: Market News. Capital Economics: CNBC: Wikipedia:

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