European stock exchanges are expected to open lower ahead of the BOE announcements and another hearing of Powell. However, the Eurostoxx 50 opens at 4,322.75 points (-0.47%), the CAC 40 at 7,260.97 points (-0.46%), the DAX 40 at 16,023.13 points (-0.55%), the FTSE 100 at 7,559,18 points (-0.13%), the SMI at 11,173.65 points (-0.38%), the AEX at 759.16 points (-0.52%), the BEL 20 at 3,559.13 points (-0.71%), the IBEX 35 at 9,436.40 points (-0.04%), the DJIA at 33,951.52 points (-0.30%), the Nasdaq at 13,502.20 points (-1.21%), the S&P 500 at 4,365.69 points (-0.52%) and the Nikkei 225 at 33 .437.81 points (-0.41%

On the exchange side, the change from the close in New York indicates that EUR/USD is at 1.0991 (+0.01%), EUR/JPY at 155.73 (-0.12%), and USD/JPY at 141.73 (-0.11%).

Investors will follow the French business climate figures in June on Thursday. On the business side, Bureau Veritas brings its shareholders together in a general meeting

Furthermore, Casino announced Wednesday evening that it wanted to reach an agreement in principle with its main creditors on the restructuring of its financial debt by the end of July. To find a way out of the difficulties experienced by the distributor, a conciliation procedure with its creditors was opened on 25 May last. It runs until next September 25.

In the coming days, the conciliators will also ask all the financial creditors of Casino and its subsidiaries to suspend the payment of interest and other commissions due in the amount of approximately 130 million euros, as well as the payment of principal installments worth nearly 70 million euros. These payment suspensions will be requested for the duration of the conciliation period

European stock markets are expected to open lower on Thursday, as investors await the Bank of England's (BOE) monetary policy decision and U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell told Congress that further interest rate hikes are expected to occur in next few months. Around 7:30am, the CAC 40 futures contract lost 45 points, or 0.6%, according to data from the IG broker. The DAX 40 contract fell by 105 points, or 0.7%, and the FTSE 100 contract fell by 56 points, or 0.7%

Two increases of 25 basis points by the end of the year are “a pretty good estimate” if the economy behaves as expected, the Fed boss said during his hearing. After these remarks, Wall Street closed lower on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Index (DJIA) fell 0.3%, the expanded S&P 500 index lost 0.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.2%. The focus is now on the Bank of England, which will announce its interest rate decision on Thursday

The BOE may accelerate its monetary tightening as inflation in the United Kingdom exceeded expectations for the fourth month in a row in May, Berenberg says. Overall inflation remained at the same level as in April in May, instead of slowing as analysts had anticipated, and core inflation reached its highest level since March 1992, instead of remaining unchanged as expected, Berenberg adds

The monetary policy decisions of the Swiss and Norwegian central banks are also expected this Thursday, as are weekly unemployment benefit claims in the United States. Jerome Powell will appear before the Senate Banking Committee for his second day of congressional hearings. Markets in Asia were mixed on Thursday. While the Nikkei index on the Tokyo Stock Exchange lost 0.5% at the end of trading, the Kospi, the flagship index of the Seoul Stock Exchange, gained 0.2%. The Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges are closed due to a holiday in China

U.S. Treasury bond yields changed shortly after Jerome Powell's first hearing in Congress. The comments made Wednesday by the Fed Chairman did not surprise the market, which continues to bet that deteriorating economic conditions will eventually force the US central bank to proceed & agrave; only one increase in the federal funds rate by the end of the year, rather than two, as anticipated by the Fed's Monetary Policy Committee

Beyond the United States, Fitch believes that rates should continue to rise in developed countries, while emerging market central banks should soon begin to ease monetary policy.

The euro changed little against the dollar on Thursday morning. Around 7:30am, the single currency was almost unchanged at $1,0987

Oil futures fell on Thursday due to a possible adjustment of positions. Disappointment over the economic recovery in China after the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions at the beginning of the year is weighing on crude oil prices. Around 7:20 a.m., the August North Sea Brent contract lost 41 cents to $76.71 per barrel, and the similar contract on sweet crude (WTI) traded on Nymex fell 37 cents to $72.16 per barrel