FTSE 100 steady as trade-deal rally fades, UK job market cools
By Ragini Mathur and Twesha Dikshit
(Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 was flat on Tuesday after a rally fuelled by a U.S.-China trade truce, while fresh data revealed a cooling UK labour market that could influence the Bank of England's future rate decisions.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 was up 0.07% by 1050 GMT, while the domestically focused midcap index advanced 0.5%.
A White House executive order said on Monday the U.S. will cut the low-value "de minimis" tariff on China shipments, further de-escalating a potentially damaging trade war between the world's two largest economies.
The tariff relief comes in the wake of Beijing and Washington announcing a truce in their trade spat after weekend talks in Geneva. Both countries agreed to a 90-day pause on most of the tariffs imposed on each other in April.
Separately, Britain's jobs market showed further signs of a slowdown as employment fell and growth in wages cooled, according to official data that is likely to reassure the Bank of England that inflation pressures are waning.
"Combined with the better trade news recently, there is nothing here to make the Bank of England regret its decision to say the easing cycle will continue to be only 'gradual'," said Luke Bartholomew, Deputy Chief Economist at Aberdeen.
The central bank last week cut rates by 25 basis points to tackle the expected hit from U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs, but a surprise three-way split among policymakers cooled expectations that it might speed up future moves.
Markets are currently pricing in an 84% chance of no change to the policy rate in the Bank of England's June meeting.
On the stock indexes, industrial metal miners rose 1.4% to lead the gains for a second consecutive day.
Automobile stocks such as Aston Martin and Dowlais Group gained 5.3% and 3%, respectively.
Sales and marketing services provider DCC dropped 3.2% to the bottom of the blue-chip index after reporting 2025 adjusted operating profit below estimates.
Meanwhile, investors are awaiting U.S. consumer prices data for April due later in the day to gauge the impact of higher tariffs.
(This story has been refiled to correct the garbled word order in paragraph 1)
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