European Shares Seen Higher With Central Bank Meetings In Focus

(RTTNews) - European stocks look set to open on a firm note on Thursday as investors digest the Federal Reserve's latest decision to cut interest rates and await the Bank of England's rate decision.

The BoE is expected to hold the base interest rate at 4 percent despite high inflation. Economists predict a slower pace of quantitative tightening amid bond market volatility.

The Bank of Canada reduced its key policy rate to a three-year low of 2.5 percent on Wednesday, marking the first cut in six months.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority followed the Fed, cutting its base interest rate charged via the overnight discount window by 25 basis points to 4.50 percent.

Brazil's central bank held interest rates steady for a second straight policy meeting and signaled it would keep them unchanged for a long time.

The People's Bank of China left a key interest rate unchanged but injected liquidity into the system through open market operations.

The Bank of Japan is widely expected to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged at a policy meeting Friday.

In economic releases, current account data from the euro area and U.S. reports on initial jobless claims and leading economic indicators may garner some attention later in the day.

Asian markets were mixed as China's internet regulator banned domestic tech companies from purchasing Nvidia's RTX Pro 6000D chips, escalating trade tensions ahead of Trump-Xi trade call scheduled for Friday.

Japan's Nikkei index soared to a new intraday record, led higher by tech stocks.

Gold held a decline after slipping from a new record high in the previous session.

The dollar was steady after plunging to a 3-1/2-year low. Oil extended overnight losses after data showed an increase in U.S. fuel inventories.

U.S. stocks fluctuated before ending mixed overnight as the Fed delivered a 25-bps rate cut, citing a shift in the balance of risks, especially recent sluggishness in the labor market.

Initial enthusiasm waned and Treasury yields edged higher after Fed Chairman Jerome Powell termed the latest policy move as a "risk management cut," emphasizing it was not primarily aimed at addressing economic weakness and that the Fed is in a "meeting-by-meeting situation" regarding the outlook for interest rates.

The Dow rose 0.6 percent while the S&P 500 slid 0.1 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed 0.3 percent.

European stocks also ended mixed on Wednesday after the release of U.K. and euro area inflation data.

The pan-European STOXX 600 gave up early gains to finish marginally lower. The German DAX and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 both inched up by 0.1 percent while France's CAC 40 dipped 0.4 percent.