LIVE MARKETS-Europe before the bell: futures higher on heavy earnings day

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EUROPE BEFORE THE BELL: FUTURES HIGHER ON HEAVY EARNINGS DAY

European stock futures are pointing to a positive open on Thursday after a raft of corporate earnings from Europe and the U.S., while investors also digested rate decisions from the Fed and BOJ.

Earnings are taking centre-stage, with reports from Shell SHEL.L, Standard Chartered STAN.L, Renault RENA.PA, BMW BMWG.DE, SocGen SOGN.PA, Credit Agricole CAGR.PA, Lufthansa LHAG.DE, Sanofi SASY.PA and a raft of others.

That has left futures on the Euro STOXX 50 STXEc1 up 0.3%, while futures on the other major European bourses are also in the green.

U.S. stock futures are also getting a boost after stellar results from Microsoft MSFT.O and Meta Platforms META.O after-hours on Wednesday. S&P futures EScv1 are up 0.9%, while those on the tech-heavy Nasdaq NQcv1 are up 1.3%.

Traders have also had to deal with rate decisions from the Fed and BOJ. Policymakers at both central banks voted to keep interest rates unchanged as expected.

The former was, perhaps, the more interesting, with two members of the Board of Governors breaking ranks and voting to lower interest rates.

Chair Jerome Powell, who has been under pressure from the White House to lower borrowing costs, emphasised that the central bank was focussed on controlling inflation, prompting investors to reduce the probability of a rate cut in September.

A final thing to note is COMEX copper prices HGc2 plunged 20% after Trump watered down his copper tariffs, wiping out the premium that U.S. copper enjoyed over the global benchmark CMCU3.

(Samuel Indyk)

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