The minutes showed that members of the committee believe the US economy has shown signs of improvement, but assured short-term interest rates would remain low for quite some time to come.

Most significantly, comments from the meeting revealed members “generally expected that the data would prove consistent with the committee’s outlook for ongoing improvement in labour market conditions and would thus warrant trimming the pace of purchases in coming months”.

Alpari Market Analyst, Craig Erlam, said: “Many members of the Fed now appear eager to start winding down its asset purchases and are looking for ways to do it that will create the least disruption in the financial markets, such as setting simple thresholds for reductions, or even more simply, providing a timetable for tapering that is not data dependent.”

Adding to the cautious mood amongst investors this morning was China’s flash Markit/HSBC manufacturing PMI, which showed a slowdown to 50.4 in November from 50.9 in October, giving rise to fears that economic growth was stalling.

In the UK, car production climbed 17% year-on-year last month, with a total of 160,854 cars built during the four-week period, driven largely by British demand, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

Worth noting, the Nikkei, Japan’s main share index, has risen to a six-month high overnight, buoyed by a weaker yen and comments from the Bank of Japan which revealed the economy was “recovering moderately”.

Later in the US, initial jobless claims are forecast to fall to 335,000 for the week to November 15th from the prior week’s 339,000 claims.

The jobs data will be used by investors to weigh whether the labour market has improved enough for a possible tapering of the Federal Reserve’s stimulus programme next month.

Busy day on the earnings front

National Grid defended its dividend policy as it reported a solid first half, although profits fell 7% due to financing costs, pushing shares lower in early trade. Chief Executive Steve Holliday said the company needed to pay a half year dividend per share of 14.49p per share, matching last year’s, to reward investors for underpinning plans to invest £26bn in its UK and US energy networks in the next eight years.

SABMiller’s investors appeared unconcerned that revenues in the first half were hurt by the depreciation of key currencies against the US dollar, with the share price moving higher early on. The drinks giant’s revenue in the six months through September were flat against the prior year at $17.5bn.

Rolls-Royce moved lower despite unveiling yet another contract win, this time with Petrobras. The $138M, five-year services contract will see it support Petrorbras’s oil production activities offshore Brazil by supplying advanced maintenance and repair services to support fifteen Rolls-Royce RB211-G62 industrial gas turbine power generation units.

Speciality chemicals firm Johnson Matthey charged higher after it reported a robust set of half-year results, powered by a strong performance in Emission Control Technologies, ahead of new European legislation, and good demand for Process Technologies’ products. Underlying pre-tax profit rose 13% to £212.9m for the six months ended September 30th on revenue that surged 31% to £6.4bn.