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EUROPEAN SHARES SEEN RISING AHEAD OF INFLATION DATA (0645 GMT)
European shares were set to kick off the new month on a positive footing ahead of euro area inflation numbers for May that could shows more signs of easing price pressures and shape expectations for the likely path of monetary policy.
EuroSTOXX50 futures rose 0.8% and those on commodity heavy FTSE added 0.2% after losses on Wednesday that drove the region-wide STOXX Europe 600 to end May at two-month lows. S&P 500 futures steadied following a weak close on Wall Street.
In the corporate world, the news flow was thinning out, as earnings season winds down. There were still some quarterly reports for investors to look at.
French spirits group Remy Cointreau reported a higher-than-expected rise in operating profit for its fiscal year and stuck to its cautious prospects for this year.
Slowing revenue growth at Salesforce could weigh on shares at German software maker SAP , while fashion retailer Hugo Boss could get some support from a surprise quarterly profit from U.S. department store chain Nordstrom.
Eyes also on Infineon, which said it was looking for acquisitions worth up to 3 billion euros. Minor acquisition for Lonza which agreed to buy Synaffix for up to 160 million euros ($176.13 million). In the UK, autocatalyst maker Johnson Matthey is planning to sell its medical device components business, according to Bloomberg.
(Danilo Masoni)
PLOTTING POLICY PATHS FOR EUROPE AND THE US (0554 GMT)
It's a volatile time for central bank watchers, when comments from one man can flip the script in a moment.
Of course, the man responsible for the latest twist is a closely followed Fed governor and vice chair nominee, Philip Jefferson, but still, his comments led bets on the next Fed policy move on June 14 to retreat from a 70% chance for a quarter-point increase to just 38% at latest check.
Jefferson said he favoured "skipping" a rate hike at the upcoming meeting and that term has started to displace "pause" among Fed officials. Some Fed watchers believe this conveys a slightly more hawkish nuance.
Bets for ECB tightening have been knocked back, too, most recently by weaker-than-expected CPI data from Germany and France. That puts the spotlight on the euro-area preliminary CPI reading for May, due later in the day, which now seems likely to come in below forecasts.
The euro zone's central bank will also release the summary of its meeting a month ago, when rates went up by a quarter point, and there will be fresh comments from ECB chief Christine Lagarde, who speaks at a banking conference in Hanover.
Traders currently foresee slightly more than 50 basis points of ECB tightening left before an expected peak in January.
Among a sizeable smattering of other European data in the day ahead are factory PMIs from the euro zone and many of its biggest members, including Germany and France, as well as from Britain and the United States.
In a positive prologue to those, Chinese factory activity posted a surprise swing to growth last month. Japan's reading also rebounded.
Investors seemed to be in a good mood across most of Asia, pushing stocks higher with encouragement from those more dovish Fed bets and relief at the U.S. House of Representatives passing a bill to suspend the debt ceiling - and avert a catastrophic default - with a big bipartisan majority. That's a strong indication that the bill could get through the Senate before the weekend.
Key developments that could influence markets on Thursday:
German retail sales
UK house prices and mortgage lending
Euro zone, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, UK and U.S. manufacturing PMIs
Italy and euro zone unemployment rate
U.S. ADP jobs report and weekly jobless claims
U.S. ISM manufacturing
(Kevin Buckland)
