European contracts traded lower on Thursday as market sentiment remains uncertain ahead of today’s slew of corporate results. The Fed’s extremely dovish tone yesterday was already largely priced in and did not lead to extreme price action on stock markets. Even though Jay Powell pledged to keep the macro environment extremely accommodative using all the tools at his disposal, it also highlighted the fact that growth is still a long way off pre-crisis levels. Investors now need to make sure the economic recovery is well on its way and that is what makes today’s earning reports so important.
While European investors will cautiously monitor results from Airbus, Total and Vivendi, traders from around the globe will await reports from US tech giants like Apple, Alphabet and Amazon. These results are seen as key indicators and would present a serious downside risk if they were to disappoint investors. On the flipside, positive news from these companies would certainly help sustain market sentiment, turning the recent bearish correction into the market taking a breath rather than a trend reversal threat.
