World stock markets treaded water near record highs on Wednesday as investors braced for any hawkish signals from the conclusion of the Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting, and oil prices hit their highest since April 2019 on recovering demand. Data on Wednesday showed UK inflation unexpectedly jumped above the Bank of England’s 2.0% target in May and hit 2.1%, and inflation looks set to rise further as Britain reopens its economy. That makes the tone and content of Wednesday’s readout from the Fed’s meeting more important for global markets.
