Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day: Europe

Good morning. The Fed is set to start easing this week but investors remain unclear on how big the first move will be. UK property prices surge. China releases more grim economic data. Here’s what people are talking about.

The Federal Reserve will begin a crucial pivot this week, lowering interest rates for the first time in more than four years as it pursues a rare soft landing for the US economy. With inflation seemingly under control and weakness showing in the US labor market, officials are widely expected to drop their benchmark lending rate by at least a quarter percentage point when they wrap up a two-day gathering on Wednesday. Still, any cut won’t provide much relief to homebuyers facing high borrowing costs, according to Gary Cohn, who served as chief economic adviser to former President Donald Trump. In the UK, the Bank of England looks set to stick to its tentative interest-rate cutting when it meets, defying skepticism from a growing cohort of investors who see a need for more aggressive action. And in Europe, the ECB should be able to continue to ease policy, but must be mindful of consumer-price growth, according to Governing Council member Pierre Wunsch.