- After two days of losses brought on by federal reserve signals that interest rates would continue to rise for some time, European stocks increased, and US index futures indicated a stronger opening on Wall Street.
- Energy, banking, and utilities drove the 0.8% increase in the Stoxx Europe 600 index, but shares continued to end a four-week winning streak. Despite this week's start with a 1% decline for the US S&P 500 index, index futures on the benchmark rose 0.3%. Additionally, NASDAQ contracts increased
- The moves come a day after hawkish remarks from St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, who said that interest rates needed to rise at least to 5%-5.25% to deter inflation, sent shares sharply lower. In response to his remarks, markets increased their expectations for how high US interest rates might rise.
- After Bullard's remarks, the dollar declined while treasury yields continued to rise. Bullard is only the most recent official to caution the markets that even though inflation seems to be slowing down from multi-decade highs, more policy tightening is necessary to control price pressures.
- Even as the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX empire continued to roil the cryptocurrency market, bitcoin was on track for a weekly gain.