LONDON — European stock markets are expected to open higher on Thursday, building on gains from the previous session.
The UK’s FTSE is expected to open up 71 points at 7,166, Germany’s DAX up 91 points at 12,683, France’s CAC 40 up 51 points at 5,956 and Italy’s FTSE MIB up 137 points at 20,955, according to data from IG.
European markets are poised to build on the gains seen on Wednesday, with the pan-European Stoxx 600 closing up 1.7%. Technology, media and retail stocks rose more than 3% to lead gains as nearly all sectors and major stocks ended in positive territory.
Investors will be digesting the latest Fed minutes released on Wednesday, in which central bank officials reiterated a tough stance on inflation, saying another move of 50 or 75 basis points “would probably be appropriate” at the July 26-27 meeting.
Federal Reserve officials acknowledged that a “more restrictive stance” in policy could be appropriate if inflation does not ease, even if it slows the economy, minutes of the meeting said.
“Participants acknowledged that policy tightening could slow the pace of economic growth for some time, but saw inflation returning to 2 percent as critical to achieving maximum employment on a sustainable basis,” the paper said.
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Overnight markets in the Asia-Pacific region were mostly higher on Thursday, while US stock futures were flat on Thursday morning as investors reviewed the latest Fed meeting minutes.
The European Central Bank will publish the minutes of its latest meeting on Thursday as foreign ministers from the Group of 20 meet in Bali.
Sainsburys is holding an annual general meeting and the figures released include German industrial production figures for May.
— CNBC’s Jeff Cox contributed to this market report.
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