Shares are expected to fall after Fed announcements and a fresh burst of earnings. The Eurostoxx 50 opened at 4,103.03 points with an increase of 0.94%, the CAC 40 at 6,609.31 points (+1.18%), the DAX 30 at 15,570.36 points (+0.33%), the FTSE 100 at 7,016.63 points (+0.29%), the SMI at 12,073.23 points (+0.43%), the AEX at 747.66 points (+1.41%), the BEL 20 at 4,234.06 points (+0.56%), the IBEX 35 at 8,733.70 points (+0.40%), the DJIA at 34.930.93 points (-0.36%), the Nasdaq at 14,762.58 points (+0.70%), the S&P 500 at 4,400.64 points (-0.02%) and the Nikkei 225 & nbsp; 27,763.11 points up 0.66%

On the exchange rate side, the change compared to the close in New York indicates that EUR/USD opened at 1.1858 up 0.12%, EUR/JPY remained stable at 130.18 while USD/JPY lost 0.12% at 109.79.

Corporate publications are still numerous in France on Thursday. In total, 12 members of the CAC 40 index reveal their half-year accounts: Airbus, TotalEnergies, Sanofi, L'Oréal, Orange, Veolia, Saint-Gobain, STMicroelectronics, Danone, Accor, Air Liquide and ArcelorMittal. The results of Casino, Arkema, EDF, JCDecaux, Solvay, Ipsen, Euronext, Fnac Darty, Verallia, Korian, FDJ, Wendel, SoprAsteria and Spie will also be monitored. On Wednesday evening, Vivendi reported increased results and sales for the first half of the year, driven by all of its activities: Universal Music Group (UMG), Canal+ Group, Havas Group

European equity markets are expected to open lower on Thursday, after the US central bank confirmed it was considering reducing asset purchases in the face of economic progress while maintaining ultra-low rates to support the recovery. At 7:25am, the CAC 40 futures contract lost 5 points, or 0.1%, according to data from the broker IG Markets. The DAX 30 contract lost 31 points, or 0.2%, and the FTSE 100 contract lost 4 points, or 0.06%. The Federal Reserve (Fed) kept its policy unchanged on Wednesday as expected and noted the progress made by the American economy on the road to recovery, paving the way for a possible reduction in asset purchases in the coming months. The central bank did not provide a timetable for initiating a withdrawal of its quantitative easing measures, but noted the progress made towards the employment and inflation objectives that justified

After these announcements, Wall Street finished in scattered order on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Index (DJIA) lost 0.4% to 34.930.80 points. The expanded S&P 500 index fell 0.02% to 4,400.63 points. The technologically dominant Nasdaq Composite rose 0.7% to 14,653 points, supported in particular by good results from Alphabet, Google's parent company. Facebook, for its part, published quarterly results after the close of Wall Street indicating that the social network, like other American digital platforms, benefited from the strong rebound in the online advertising market in the second quarter. However, the presentation of mixed forecasts for the coming months weighed on the social network's share price in the trades that followed the Wall Street close. In Asia, the main indices recovered on Thursday. At the end of the session, the Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.1%, recovering after several consecutive sessions of decline. The Hang Seng rose by 2.8% in Hong Kong. In Tokyo, the Nikkei index rose 0.6%. The rebound is explained by Beijing's efforts to curb the drop in shares following the crackdown on several tech and private education companies in China. An official at the Chinese stock market regulator told representatives of several international banks that Beijing would study the impact of its policies on financial markets in the future before making new decisions, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal

U.S. Treasury bond yields rose slightly on Thursday, as investors analyze Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's comments and the central bank's assessment that the U.S. economy has “made progress” on the conditions needed for R&D completion of its asset purchases, but insufficient to begin a gradual withdrawal. At 7:25am, the yield on the ten-year Treasury note, the benchmark for the bond market, was moving to 1.245%, compared to 1.234% on Wednesday evening. Among the measures announced on Wednesday, the Fed introduced a new mechanism to provide liquidity to Wall Street to ensure the stability of financial markets during turbulent times. A new securities pension window will be set up as of Thursday.

The euro is rising against the dollar on Thursday, as the Fed softened its tone from the restrictive tone adopted at the end of its previous meeting and did not provide precise information on the timetable for withdrawing its asset purchases. The resurgence of Covid-19 cases supports the idea that monetary stimulus measures will remain in place at least until 2022, which some analysts say is unfavourable to the US currency. In addition, the role of the dollar and the euro in international transactions could be reduced if the Fed and the European Central Bank (ECB) decided not to launch a digital currency, Bank of America indicates

Oil contracts continued to rise on Thursday after the Fed's announcements. However, the possible resumption of Iranian oil exports remains a major downside risk for black gold prices, says the CBA bank. At 7:15am, the September North Sea Brent contract earned 24 cents, at $74.98 per barrel. The price of light sweet crude oil (WTI) traded on Nymex rose by 25 cents to $72.64