| London stocks regained some ground on Wednesday as commodity stocks were boosted by a weaker dollar, with the euro surging off the back of hawkish comments out of the European Central Bank. The FTSE 100 had added almost 20 points or 0.26% to reach 7,706.70 after an hour's trading, despite the pressure from higher sterling, which was up 0.25% against the dollar at 1.3426. Overnight the Dow Jones finished just the wrong side of flat, while the S&P 500 was the other side of the line but the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 gaining 0.32% after earlier hitting a fresh intraday high. Perhaps the key economic event on the economic calendar was a speech by European Central Bank chief economist, Peter Praet, who said there's strong evidence that tight labour market conditions is translating into wage growth, and that the underlying stregth of the eurozone economy persists. Analyst Neil Wilson at Markets.com said Praet's comment about "improving" signals showing the convergence of inflation towards the ECB's targets aim, points to confidence about tightening sooner rather than later and that the overall tone of the speech was "fairly hawkish". The euro was up 0.2% against the pound and 0.44% against the dollar a 1.1770. "The euro is stealing the spotlight this morning following rumours that the European Central Bank could discuss the end of asset purchases during their meeting next week," said Konstantinos Anthis, head of research at ADS Securities. "The European currency had been under pressure in recent months as the data didn't provide the necessary stimulus while political uncertainty in Italy and Spain left investors undecided about buying the currency. So do these rumours affect the fundamental outlook of the shared currency? "Earlier in the year we were expecting the ECB to go ahead and end purchases towards the end of the summer but a bearish string of data cast doubts on this scenario. Now that this is back on the table it might just be the catalyst the euro needs in order to stage a meaningful reversal from its current lows. If indeed the ECB would discuss putting an end to their quantitative easing program and indicate a date when they expect this to happen then yes, things could change for the euro." Closer to home, Bank of England policymaker Silvana Tenreyro will speak and take questions at a CBI economic briefing in Belfast at 1100 BST it could be worth keeping an eye on the US foreign trade numbers for April, set to be published at 1330 BST and gaining more interest due to the White House's recent tariff-fuelled feuds. In company news, budget airline easyJet flew moderately higher after reporting increased passengers and capacity utilisation in May, a month when 2.5% of planned capacity was affected by French and Italian industrial action and bad weather. Passenger numbers rose 3.7% year-on-year and load factor was up 1.8 percentage points to 93.3%. Commodities stocks were well represented among the leading risers thanks to the dollar weakness helping oil and metals prices, with Anglo American, Centrica and Rio Tinto pushing highest. "Oil prices are recovering from recent lows to continue a two-day rally (to the benefit of energy shares around the world) on the back of a surprise API oil drawdown (even if gasoline stocks rose; US consumer confidence barometer, driving less?) and in spite of talks about oil-producing nations mulling adding back supply," wrote Accendo Martkets market analyst Mike van Dulken in a note to clients. WH Smith impressed with stronger sales growth in the third quarter of its trading year, where like-for-like sales rose 1% compared to last year, reversing the 1% decline in the previous six months. Smurfit Kappa shares were higher as it talked up its prospected after US-based International Paper walked away from takeover talks overnight, bemoaning the Dublin-based cardboard packing group's lack of communication after it rebuffed approaches in February and March. Giving outsourcer Serco a boost was the winning of a US health insurance eligibility support contract worth up to $900m. RPC Group continued to melt lower amid market worries about the crackdown on plastic waste, despite a successful year turning plastic into cash and dividends, with management trumpeting the "unprecedented" opportunities for growth in the market. Impatient investors may be displeased that RPC expects adjusted operating profit in the core businesses to improve by 'only' £50m by the financial year to March 2021. Workspace Group fell despite reporting profit before tax more than doubled to £170.4m after “significant” increases in both trading profit and property valuation. The FTSE 250 serviced office outfit said it saw strong growth in net rental income of 21% to £95.6m, resulting in 20% growth in adjusted trading profit after interest to £60.7m. Train companies were again under pressure, with led by Stagecoach and FirstGroup this time after MPs launched an inquiry earlier in the week into the chaos on UK rail services. | 
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