The pan-European Stoxx 600 was up 0.7% in early trade, with basic resources adding 1.2% to lead gains as all sectors and major bourses entered positive territory. The Fed’s annual meeting begins on Thursday, with Chairman Jerome Powell delivering a speech on Friday. Investors will be listening for information on the central bank’s monetary policy tightening trajectory as it tries to rein in inflation and whether interest rate cuts are in sight at the end of the current cycle. Luke Bartholomew, senior economist at Abrdn, said Powell may use the speech to issue a “mea culpa” over his prediction a year ago that inflation would be “transient” and to demonstrate what the Fed on price pressures over the past year. . “Powell is likely to emphasize that policy still has a long way to go before the Fed feels comfortable that it has decisively turned the corner on restoring price stability. This is important because the market has recently behaved as if it has moved away from Fed hawkish stance,” Bartholomew said in an email on Wednesday. “It’s hard to believe that Fed leadership is comfortable with how economic conditions have become much more accommodative after the last month, so Powell will use this speech as an opportunity to push back against this more hawkish interpretation of its policy Recently emerged Fed. .” U.S. stock futures rose in early premarket trading Thursday after Wall Street snapped a three-day losing streak on Wednesday. State investors will also be closely watching Thursday’s weekly jobless claims data and Friday’s PCE (personal consumption expenditure) reading, one of the Fed’s favored measures of inflation. Asia-Pacific shares were mostly higher on Thursday, with Hong Kong’s morning session canceled due to a typhoon warning. As for data in Europe, Germany’s Ifo Institute’s business climate and expectations surveys will be released on Thursday morning, following the latest second-quarter GDP data from Europe’s largest economy.
