Summary:

  • Majority of the European stock benchmarks gain in the first half of a day

  • SEK sinks as Riksbank stays reluctant to rate hikes under current conditions

  • Investors wait for the ECB decision and Draghi presser

  • Major cryptocurrencies decline

Thursday’s morning brought rebound to the European stock markets. Equity indices from the Old Continent are trading broadly higher. Investors wait for the ECB’s interest decision and the post-meeting press conference of the President Draghi. Scandinavian currencies are top movers today among the Group-of-10 with NOK being the strongest one while SEK is the biggest underperformer. Gold and silver advance along with oil and industrial metals. However, cooper and zinc are trading lower.

As expected the Swedish central bank left all interest rates unchanged, but it did push back time for the projected beginning of monetary tightening. At the same time, it abstained from particular remarks with regard to the exchange rate despite a heavy SEK sell-off we witnessed in the past months.

Russia is going to implement new cryptocurrency regulations beginning in July, and the latest news seem to offer a confirmation they’re undertaking appropriate steps. Namely, the Russian Association of Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain informed that while Russian ICOs attracted roughly $300 million last year, a half of the funds went to financial pyramids.

According to the latest reports UK PM Theresa May has held a secret meeting with conservative Tory members that opt for a clean break from the EU. A person familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg PM May assured eurosceptics that she will provide the Brexit they want.

The Australian dollar is among the best G10 currencies in the morning as it got the positive numbers concerning terms of trade for the Q1. Namely, the import price index grew 2.1% qoq while the export price index grew 4.9% – both turned out better than forecast.

It should not be surprising that at the moment European Central Bank is not expected to lift rates. The Eurozone economy have seen signs of exhaustion recently (deterioration of PMIs). Moreover, the latest inflation reading has shown that the inflation is still subdued and far off the target.