Ankur Banerjee gives a look at the day ahead in European and world markets.
As traders wrap up for the year, the markets are trying to have a short Santa rally before Christmas. The boost comes from a rise in U.S. consumer confidence, while the yen keeps going after the Bank of Japan dropped a bombshell this week.
The Japanese yen is close to 131 per dollar, which is a long way from its 32-year low of 151.94 in October. Some analysts think the yen will continue to rise. Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), on the other hand, thinks the dollar will fight back.
Related: As central banks downplay peak rate expectations, there will be no Santa rally.
Stocks in Asia followed Wall Street’s lead and went up 1.3%, while the dollar went down, which helped gold prices go up.
Investors will pay attention to Britain’s GDP data for the third quarter, which comes out on Thursday. Trading has been slow because of the holidays. Economists polled by Reuters think it will go up 2.4% from one year to the next.
Also, China’s securities watchdog said that the world’s second-largest economy will get better as strong stimulus policies take effect. This is true even though the country is dealing with a rise in COVID-19 cases since it stopped being a “zero-COVID” country.
(Graphic: European stocks: http://www.reuters.com/graphics/EUROPE-STOCKS/klpyggjkopg/chart_eikon.jpg)
In the crypto world, the FTX story starts a new chapter as the company’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, heads to the US to face fraud charges.
Thursday’s markets could be affected by the following major events:
Related: Even with provisions and costs, Santander’s profit beats what was expected.
Economic events include the release of the UK Q3 GDP data and the November PPI data from Sweden.