Caroline Hepker

Now, traders have piled into bets on rate hikes after Fed Chair Kevin Walsh used his first rate decision press conference to emphasise that the central bank won't tolerate high inflation.

As expected, policymakers voted unanimously to hold interest rates steady in a range of 3.5% to 3.75%.

However, it was Kevin Walsh's comments to reporters after the decision that caught the attention of markets.

Walsh largely sidestepped a question on why the Fed didn't go ahead and raise interest rates now, given that inflation is running at more than double the US central bank's 2% target.

Meanwhile, the Bank of England is expected to leave interest rates unchanged today after UK inflation came in steadier than expected.

Both traders and economists believe that rates will be held at 3.75% even with the recent energy shock.

Hugh Gimbert is global markets strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management.

JP Morgan's Hugh Gimber there.

As economists surveyed by Bloomberg see the Monetary Policy Committee splitting 7 to 2 in favour of a hold today.

Traders are still pricing in one quarter point rise this year, but many economists think that rates have already peaked.

UK voters in the constituency of Makerfield go to the polls later today.

The race is one of three parliamentary special elections actually taking place in the UK.

The other two by-elections are in the Scottish seats of Aberdeen South and Arbroath and Broughty Ferry.

The G7 countries have pledged to diversify away from China with ambitious trade targets on critical minerals.

They agreed that no single country should supply more than 60% of their imports of rare earths by 2030.

It has momentum to the European Union's push to counter a deficit of more than €1 billion per day with the world's largest economy.

Bloomberg's Freddie Fulston has more.

Now, finally, England manager Thomas Tuchel has praised his team's second-half performance after they beat Croatia 4-2 in their opening Group L game of the World Cup.

Captain Harry Kane scored twice, while Jude Bellingham and Marcus Rashford were also on target.

The team went into the break, though, level at 2-2.