Marketmind: Markets bide time as policymakers plot next moves
SYDNEY (Reuters) — A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Stella Qiu
It's a week that every investor has squarely on their radar: Three of the world's biggest central banks will deliver their latest policy moves and China's Politburo — its top policymaking body — is set to unveil support measures as the economy sputters.
Meanwhile, markets seem to be biding their time.
On Monday, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was off a slight 0.3%, European stock futures were marginally lower and U.S. futures were flat.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was a bit of an outlier on the downside with a drop of 1.5%, dragged lower by Chinese property developers which tumbled more than 5%.
With a quarter-point hike from both the Federal Reserve (on Wednesday) and the European Central Bank (on Thursday) looking set in stone, the focus will be on what Fed Chair Jerome Powell and ECB President Christine Lagarde say about the rate outlook.
If markets are right, this should be the last hike from the Fed and second-to-last from the ECB, as investors look ahead to the end of the great synchronised global tightening campaign — and rate cuts that may soon follow.
The U.S. earnings season will also move into higher gear this week with Meta Platforms, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) among the big names reporting.
Their results will have to be good enough to justify the S&P 500's earning multiple of 20 times and its gains of 19% year-to-date.
In Asia, contrary to what some investors were expecting, the Bank of Japan，which meets on Friday，is leaning towards keeping its yield control policy unchanged so that policymakers can scrutinise more data to ensure wages and inflation keep rising,
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