Marketmind: China markets exhale after bank reserves cut

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: An electronic board shows stock indexes at the Lujiazui financial district in Shanghai, China, March 21, 2023. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo

A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Tom Westbrook

Chinese markets caught a foothold overnight, with a cut in bank reserve requirements and vague promises of more support ahead enough to staunch selling, for now. The blue chip CSI300 rose more than 1%, cutting losses for the year to roughly 3%.

Global investors have been streaming out of Chinese equities for months thanks to an underperforming economy and discomfort with regulatory risk and authorities’ response to a cratering property market.

Their view is that a lot more must be spent repairing consumer confidence before allocation can return in size, though tactical buying and short covering has been evident this week.

With detail on any further rescue elusive, focus turns to the European Central Bank policy meeting and in particular to President Christine Lagarde’s post-meeting news conference.

Minutes from the December meeting showed policymakers resolved to push back on aggressive market pricing for rate cuts, and she is likely to be pressed on their timing.

Markets expect a cut as soon as April, but have been dialling back pricing over the past few weeks.

The euro was flatlining into the meeting at $1.0879. Luxury retailer LVMH is due to report earnings with the stock well off last year’s highs, but on the heels of rival Richemont notching bumper sales in China.

In the U.S. Netflix (NASDAQ:) surged 11% on blowout subscriber growth. After-hours IBM (NYSE:) shares went up more than 8% after the software company forecast estimate-beating earnings, while Tesla (NASDAQ:) slid 6% after missing forecasts.

U.S. GDP and a slew of corporate earnings reports are also due on Thursday including Intel (NASDAQ:) and Visa (NYSE:).

Key developments that could influence markets on Thursday:

Economics: German IFO survey, U.S. GDP

Policy: European Central Bank meeting

Earnings: Nokia (HE:), LVMH, Intel, Visa, T-Mobile, American Airlines (NASDAQ:), Dow Inc (NYSE:)

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