Britain's pound tumbled on Wednesday as weak ‍inflation data cemented UK interest rate cut bets, while oil snapped out of its recent slide after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers ​in and out of Venezuela.

Europe had a lively start, with soft UK CPI figures leaving money markets in no doubt the Bank of England would cut rates on Thursday, driving the pound 0.7% lower against ⁠the dollar and helping lift the FTSE 100 to a one-month high.

European commodity-linked stocks also traded up, with energy firms jumping 1.2%, tracking a rise in crude prices and miners up almost 1% as silver ⁠hit ‌another record high and platinum continued to soar.

"The (UK) data obviously reinforces the prospect of a more unified BoE cut tomorrow," MUFG's Derek Halpenny said.

With the jobs market also looking weaker, Halpenny said "there is a real and obvious need for rate cuts now", adding: "Not only tomorrow, but also in February", which he pointed out was ⁠not yet fully priced into markets.

OIL JUMPS ON TRUMP WARNING

Trump's Venezuela oil embargo warnings pushed Brent crude futures up 1.8% and back to $60 a barrel in London.

That, however, comes after a 5% slide this week as the prospect of a Russia-Ukraine peace deal - and potentially an easing of Russian oil sanctions - appears to have strengthened.

In the broader market, the big global stocks indices were mixed as investors mostly looked past Tuesday's U.S. nonfarm payrolls report.

While jobs growth rebounded more than expected in November following its biggest drop in nearly five years in October, ⁠the unemployment rate rose to 4.6%, the highest in more ​than four years, although analysts did not want to read to much into it given the lengthy recent U.S. government shutdown.

"Associated data collection issues will leave many sceptical about reading too deeply into these latest jobs figures," said Nick Rees, ‍head of macro research at Monex Europe.

"Nevertheless, we still think the overall takeaway remains a sense that the U.S. labour market is softening at a faster rate than policymakers had anticipated, even if there is room to question just how worrying this ​weakness really is."

Overnight, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan had gained 0.35%, with Japan's Nikkei closing up a similar amount too in Tokyo.

Wall Street futures also pointed to a slightly higher restart for the S&P 500, Dow Jones and Nasdaq when U.S, trading resumes later.

Fed funds futures suggest markets are still pricing in roughly two U.S. rate cuts next year, with the latest labour market reading doing little to shift expectations.

The next key data point for investors will be Thursday's release of the U.S. November inflation report.

Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasuries yields were up 0.5 basis points at 4.15% ahead of that in Europe after falling 3.5 basis points on Tuesday following the payrolls data.

Germany’s 10-year yields, the euro area’s benchmark, dipped 1.5 basis points to 2.83% while the UK's weak inflation numbers sent gilt yields down 5 basis points to 4.46%

"For now, our base case remains two 25-bps (U.S) rate cuts in the first half of next year at the March and June FOMC meetings, with the risks skewed toward more rather than fewer cuts in 2026," economists at Wells Fargo said in a note.

CENTRAL FOCUS

It will not only be the Bank of England in the spotlight on Thursday. The ⁠European Central Bank holds a meeting the same day where it is expected to keep its rates steady, while ‌investors are wagering Japan's central bank will hike its rates.

The yen had fallen 0.25% to 155.10 per dollar in Asia, however, as it continued to be weighed down by domestic fiscal worries.

Total spending in Japan's draft budget for fiscal 2026 will likely exceed 120 trillion yen ($773.74 billion) to hit a new record which would top the 115 trillion-yen annual budget for the current fiscal year, Reuters reported on ‌Tuesday.

Japanese government bonds also came ⁠under selling pressure, with the 10-year yield hitting an 18-year high of 1.98% on Wednesday. Bond yields move inversely to prices.

Elsewhere, silver jumped past the $65-per-ounce mark for the first time, platinum leapt 4% having ⁠almost doubled in price since April, while gold rose 0.3% to $4,317 an ounce. ($1 = 155.0900 yen)

(Additional reporting by Rae Wee in Singapore; editing by Alexander Smith)