After losing steam in places on Wednesday, the markets made an attempt to return to the rebounding gains seen earlier in the week.
The UK’s start came in the shadow of this afternoon’s Bank of England meeting. The pound was anxious after the bell, falling 0.4% against the dollar and 0.2% against the euro. That decline has sent GBP/USD below $1.359 for the first time in over 2-weeks.
This is turn has helped the FTSE climb 0.4%, putting a buffer between the index and 6,500.
Though the BoE isn’t expected to announce any changes to monetary policy, it is set to reveal the findings of its review into the impact of negative interest rates on the banking sector. Andrew Bailey has repeatedly poured cold water on the idea of negative rates; a reaffirmation of that belief could pull sterling out of its funk. Anything else would pose a big problem for the pound.
The DAX remained one of the strongest performers this month. Adding another 60 points, it is closing in on 14,000, a level it abandoned 3 and a half weeks ago. The CAC was actually perkier than its German peer, rising half a percent to 5,580.
Barely moving on Thursday, the Dow Jones may remain cautious ahead of tomorrow’s nonfarm jobs report. The futures have the index unchanged later this Thursday, sitting around 20 or so points above 30,700.
As for data, the unemployment claims reading is set to continue to fall after its spike towards 1 million, with estimates of a drop from 847,000 to 828,000 week-on-week.
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