BUSINESS LIVE: Shell beats forecasts; Fed holds interest rates; Standard Chartered buoyed by higher interest rates

Among the companies with reports and trading updates today are Shell, Standard Chartered, Melrose Industries and Apple. Read the Thursday 2 May Business Live blog below.

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Fed Reserve maintains interest rates

Overnight, the US Federal Reserve held interest rates steady and signaled it is still leaning towards eventual reductions in borrowing costs, but put a red flag on recent disappointing inflation readings that could make those rate cuts a while in coming.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that after starting 2024 with three months of faster-than-expected price increases, it ‘will take longer than previously expected’ for policymakers to become comfortable that inflation will resume the decline towards 2 per cent that had cheered them through much of last year.

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This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk