The FTSE 100 (^FTSE) and European stocks were fairly muted on Thursday morning as traders awaited the latest decision on UK interest rates from the Bank of England (BoE). It is widely anticipated that Threadneedle Street will leave rates unchanged at 5.25%, where they have been since August. The focus will instead be on the vote split, their new forecasts and what their forward guidance signals about potential cuts in the future. Jim Reid, UK economist at Deutsche Bank (DB) believed the vote will be 7-2 to remain on hold, with two monetary policy committee members voting to cut. He also expects a further dovish tilt in the forward guidance, which would set the stage for a June rate cut. London’s benchmark index was treading water in early trade Germany's DAX (^GDAXI) rose 0.2% and the CAC (^FCHI) in Paris was flat after opening The pan-European STOXX 600 (^STOXX) was down 0.1% Wall Street is set to open lower as S&P 500 futures (ES=F), Dow futures (YM=F) and Nasdaq futures (NQ=F) were all slightly in the red The pound (GBPUSD=X) was 0.2% down against the dollar at 1.2474 Job market easing makes case for interest rate cut Kathleen Brooks, research...