Thursday 14 July 2016 1:42 pm

Before the bell: What you need to know before the US market open

The Bank of England has kept interest rates on hold, stunning the market and sending the pound sharply upwards.

Here's what you need to know ahead of the US market open at 2:30pm London time.

US futures are pointing higher, signalling what could be another day of broken all-time-highs for indices. The S&P is up by 0.85 per cent, the Nasdaq is 0.71 per cent higher, while the Dow is 0.86 per cent ahead. The US 10-year yield is higher by three basis points at 1.51 per cent.

The FTSE 100 has given up almost all of its earlier gains after Bank of England governor Mark Carney's shock decision to maintain interest rates at 0.5 per cent.

European markets are generally holding on to theirs however. Asian markets ended the day with small gains, with the exception of the Shanghai Composite which lost ground.

The Bank that blinked…

The market thought it had finally got a handle on Bank of England governor Mark Carney, but the unreliable boyfriend of the central banking world has broken its heart again.

In a shocking decision, the Bank of England kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 0.50 per cent for an 88th straight meeting sending the pound sharply higher and the FTSE 100 sharply lower.

The vote was 8 to 1 in favour of holding, while the committee unanimously voted to leave its asset purchasing programme target unchanged at £375bn.

Most members did say they foresaw a cut in August however.

Stocks to watch

US seed giant Monsanto is considering the acquisition of BASF's agriculture-solutions unit, it has been reported.

The price tag for the unit is unknown but Bloomberg reported that Monsanto would probably pay in newly issued shares.

Monsanto rejected a $62bn takeover bid by Bayer in May and is keen to prove to shareholders the rebuttal was justified.

KFC owner Yum Brands has raised its raised guidance after reporting adjusted earnings of $0.75 a share, marginally beating Bloomberg's analyst consensus.

KFC China continues to be the bright spot for growth, though total revenue fell short, coming in at $3.01bn versus the Wall Street estimate of $3.09bn.

Companies reporting

The largest US bank by assets JP Morgan Chase had results out this morning, and it didn't do half bad. JP Morgan has kicked off US bank earnings season which will see the likes of Citi and Wells Fargo post numbers tomorrow.

The world's largest asset manager BlackRock missed expectations this morning with its latest numbers.

Also reporting ahead of the opening bell are Delta Air Lines, and insurer Progressive.