All eyes on CBRT, stocks in Europe lag behind Asian peers

Summary:

Stock markets in Europe trade with little upside
Euro continues rebounding against the US dollar
Markets await CBRT interest rate decision

European equities post minor gains on Thursday on the back of an upbeat sessions in the US and Asia yet the scale of advance on the Old Continent is small compared to other regions. Both USDTRY and EURTRY rise ahead of the Turkish central bank interest rate decision that is going to be main event of the day (12:00 pm BST). The Australian dollar is the worst performing currency in the G10 basket giving back some of the gains from the previous days. On the other hand of the table we have the Swiss franc that is outperforming all of its major peers. Both gold and oil trade at a small premium against yesterday’s close.

The German financial regulator Bafin revealed some interesting informations concerning cryptocurrency trading following a question asked by the Bundestag member Thomas Lutze. It turns out that at least six German banks are involved in cryptocurrency trading activities and the country’s watchdog is fully aware of it.

Improved spirits in the US led to gains in Asian markets as well as the green opening across European equities even as some European Central Bank members including chief economist Peter Praet signalled a debate pertaining to an exit of the APP might take place relatively soon. It undoubtedly gave investors some food for thought and a majority of them now expects the ECB could announce its decision next Thursday.

Three prime indices in the US ended Wednesday with decent gains, and it encouraged Asian investors to buy riskier assets as well. Let us point out that a rally on Wall Street yesterday was mainly driven by banks’ shares giving the Dow Jones its best day in almost 2 months whereas the NASDAQ closed at another record high.

The Turkish lira had been plunging over the past weeks until the CBRT delivered an emergency rate hike in May. Since then, the TRY has recouped part of its losses, but it keeps trading constantly close to its all-time lows anyway.