Today we are likely to see a very slow, cautious stock market in Europe. Investors were given pause yesterday when the Federal Reserve in the United States did not really change its projections for 2018, despite increasing interest rates and mentioning three possible further hikes next year. Needless to say, analysts were expecting a much more pronounced hawkish notes from the Fed, especially in conjunction with the rate hike.
Right now in Europe the markets are dominated by the activity of central banks. Both the ECB and the Bank of England are set to announce the measures they plan to implement to see the year off and make some forecasts for 2018, which is just around the corner.
As a result of this market tentativeness, the STOXX index lost 0.2%. The euro and the Swiss franc both lost to the dollar earlier today, but the euro has since been able to recover on strong economic data.
Right now we just need to wait for the announcements from the two central banks in order to properly evaluate the situation.