U.K. stocks rose on Thursday to hit a record high for a third session in a row, with upbeat earnings and news of a takeover approach for Anglo American boosting investor sentiment.

French stocks traded slightly lower on Thursday as investors reacted to mixed earnings results and awaited the latest financial results from the U.S. megacaps.

German stocks traded lower on Thursday as a disappointing earnings report from Facebook parent Meta Platforms gave way to caution ahead of earnings results from some of biggest and most important growth and tech companies in the U.S.

Asian stocks fell in thin holiday trade on Thursday, with the Australian and New Zealand markets closed for Anzac Day.

The Japanese yen weakened against other major currencies in the Asian session on Thursday, as market speculate the Japanese authorities is likely to intervene the foreign exchange market to prop up the yen ahead of the BOJ policy meeting.

Yen falls to new 34-year low ahead of BoJ decision - Dollar traders await GDP and PCE data - Wall Street mixed, gold stays on the back foot

Euro-dollar stable; stochastic positive. Dollar up 0.33% vs. yen; Williams signals overbought. Gold-dollar drops 0.3%; stochastic RSI oversold. Tesla falls 0.5%; oscillator positive. Yen weakens, S&P 500 rises, US Treasury auction affects yields. Australian inflation disappoints. Upcoming: US GDP, French business climate, Japan CPI, UK consumer confidence.

The USD/JPY pair reached an all-time high on Thursday, touching the 155.50 level. This development comes as the Bank of Japan (BoJ) starts its two-day monetary policy meeting with widespread expectations that the interest rate will remain unchanged at zero.

Expert market comment made by senior analyst Alex Kuptsikevich of the FxPro Analyst Team: Crypto: Bears are plotting a new attack

he U.S. equity markets saw a halt in their two-day rally, primarily pulled down by disappointing earnings from Meta Platforms. As a result, both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were left nearly unchanged, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed lower.