Powell elevates mood ahead to the BOE decision

Following significant gains on Wall Street due to growing optimism that the Federal Reserve has finished raising interest rates, European stock markets are predicted to open higher on Thursday.

After the latest policy-setting meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve, investors became more confident that the next move in U.S. interest rates will be down, not up. European equities are expected to follow Wall Street's positive lead overnight, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rising 1.6%.

As was largely anticipated, the Fed held interest rates unchanged on Wednesday. Although Chair Jerome Powell left open the possibility of another raise, his remarks gave the impression that he was not entirely committed to the notion.

Later in the session, the Bank of England will make its most recent monetary policy announcement back in Europe.

This central bank must contend with an inflation rate that reached 6.7% in September, more than three times its objective, even though it is generally expected to follow the Fed and the European Central Bank in holding interest rates steady at their 15-year high this month.

The October unemployment statistics for Germany are included in the European data slate, along with manufacturing PMI figures for several European nations and the eurozone overall.

After the U.S. market closes, Apple, the largest business in the world based on market capitalization, is scheduled to report its most recent earnings.

Following the Fed's decision to hold interest rates, which strengthened the dollar and encouraged risk appetite to return to the financial markets, oil prices rose on Thursday, ending a three-day fall.

The Energy Information Administration's official data indicates that oil inventories increased by a somewhat lesser amount than anticipated during the week ending October 27. Despite this, markets mostly moved beyond the news.

(Sources: investing.com, reuters.com)