Hello traders, welcome to Thursday’s market analysis, a day shaped by a busy macro calendar and a few key earnings updates. Let’s begin with the earnings side. Yesterday’s session featured results from Toyota, McDonald’s, and Novo Nordisk — all released before the market opened. Novo Nordisk delivered better-than-expected earnings, McDonald’s disappointed slightly, and Toyota came in mixed. Surprisingly, market reactions were not entirely aligned with the numbers: McDonald’s ended 2% higher, Novo Nordisk finished flat, and Toyota slipped 2%.
Today, the spotlight turns to AstraZeneca, which will be the largest company publishing earnings on Thursday. Investors will be closely watching how the pharmaceutical giant performs, especially given recent volatility across the healthcare sector.
Moving on to the macro calendar, Thursday looks much busier compared to the previous days. Yesterday brought us better-than-expected ADP employment data and ISM services PMI from the U.S., reinforcing optimism about the American economy. Today, we await the Bank of England’s interest rate decision, where no change is expected, with rates likely to stay at 4%. Additionally, we’ll get Ivey PMI from Canada, expected at 55.2, along with speeches from Bank of Canada Governor Macklem and FOMC member Waller later in the day.
Looking at the market movements, indices start Thursday on the back foot, following a strong rebound on Wednesday when major benchmarks recovered from new lows. That pullback day helped restore some optimism, but it’s natural to see slight bearish corrections this morning after such a strong run.
On the currency market, we are seeing a correction across the dollar zone. Both antipodean currencies (Australian and New Zealand dollars) and North American currencies (U.S. and Canadian dollars) are under pressure. Meanwhile, European currencies are stronger, leading the early Thursday session with Euro and Pound regaining ground.
Finally, on the commodities front, oil and metals are leading the early optimism. Oil continues to push higher after finding solid support earlier in the week, while gold and silver are both showing bullish momentum, particularly silver, which is climbing steadily and regaining investor interest after a recent correction.