The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.5% to its highest level since August 18.
The Riksbank raised borrowing costs by 0.75 points to 2.5% and signaled that further tightening was needed to bring inflation under control, although it forecast a deepening recession for the Swedish economy.
The Bank of England must continue to raise interest rates to bring inflation down to 2% despite the economic difficulties facing households, two politicians have said.
Citing concerns about the tight labor market and high inflation expectations, Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden said his bias was to continue tightening. Those concerns were echoed by rate-setter Catherine Mann, who said monetary policy could do little to help households struggling with soaring energy and food prices.
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Today’s agenda
Local Data: NZ Q3 Retail Sales Volume, November ANZ Consumer Confidence
Overseas data: China to release October industrial earnings on Sunday
Market Highlights
ASX futures up 14 points or 0.19% at 7267 around 4:45 a.m. AEDT
- AUD +0.5% to 67.64 US cents
- Bitcoin + 1.4% to US$16,595 at 4:45 a.m. AEDT
- Wall St closed for Thanksgiving
- Stoxx 50 +0.4% FTSE +0.02% CAC +0.4% DAX +0.8%
- Spot gold +0.3% at US$1,755.28/oz at 12:44 p.m. New York
- Brent -0.5% to $84.98 a barrel
- Iron ore +1.3% to $96.45 per tonne
- 10-year yield: United States 3.69% Australia 3.54% Germany 1.84%
United States
Fundstrat’s Mark Newton sees further S&P 500 Advance: “Trends remain up and US indices should end the week at new highs for November.
“Interestingly, technology was one of the key sectors that lost ground over the week, and the tech lag will likely continue to be a factor that serves to limit US outperformance in the near term.
“Bottom line, SPX is expected to break above the 11/15 intraday highs of 4028.84, which should allow prices to reach 4055-4075 and eventually close to 4120.”
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JPMorgan Chase & Co and Deutsche Bank have been accused of enabling the sexual abuse of Jeffrey Epstein in class action lawsuits in New York that allege the banks turned a blind eye in order to ‘generate profits’.
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Thousands of Amazon warehouse workers in about 40 countries plan to take part in protests and walkouts to coincide with Black Friday sales, one of the busiest days of the year for online shopping. line.
Employees in the US, UK, India, Japan, Australia, South Africa and across Europe are demanding better wages and working conditions as the cost of living crisis escalates worsens, in a campaign dubbed “Make Amazon Pay”. The campaign is coordinated by an international coalition of trade unions, with support from environmental and civil society groups.
Europe
Minutes from the European Central Bank’s October meeting showed policymakers feared inflation was taking root, justifying more rate hikes, but for how long and how much remained a debate.
Elsewhere, ECB board member Isabel Schnabel, the most influential hawk, pushed back on recent calls by many of her colleagues for lower interest rate increases, saying this was premature and could even turn out to be counter-productive.
“Recent comments from ECB officials suggest that the discussion at the December meeting will be much more heated and contentious,” Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro at ING, said in a note.
“We currently expect the ECB to hike rates by 50 basis points in December and another 25 basis points in February. The big question will be around quantitative tightening (QT) or in other words, the reduction of the ECB’s balance sheet.
Goods
Germany has outlined its plan to recoup 90% of revenue from some clean energy generators as the government seeks to fund its consumer relief package.
The government plans to cut revenues above €130 per megawatt-hour for solar, wind and nuclear, according to a bill seen by Bloomberg News. Politicians are trying to claw back some of the profits that companies like RWE AG make from high electricity prices.
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Europe’s hottest summer on record has likely resulted in more than 20,000 additional deaths in France, Germany, Spain and the UK, according to official data.