07:20 , Graeme Evans The FTSE 100 index is set to open slightly lower after Friday’s 0.6% rise took London’s top flight to a record closing high of 8433.76. Today’s forecast fall of about ten points follows Wall Street’s lacklustre finish to last week ahead of Wednesday’s release of US inflation figures. Economists are expecting April’s headline year-on-year rate to have dropped slightly to 3.4%, with core inflation down by two-tenths to 3.6%. The update and tone of a speech due tomorrow by Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell will influence bets on when US interest rates might begin to fall. Expectations that this may not happen until the autumn has weighed on the oil price and left Brent Crude trading at $82.73 a barrel this morning. 06:49 , Simon Hunt Good morning from the Standard City desk. In a world full of reasons to be gloomy, perhaps we might make a few concessions to optimism. The economy is going the right way, up, and faster than most commentators expected. Taxes are going slowly down, so is inflation, which means interest rates should follow soon-ish. We can leave the City pointy heads to argue about whether that will be in June...