A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Mike

Dolan

Wall Street returns from its midweek break to find record high

stocks still chomping at the bit, with overseas monetary easing

in focus as the Swiss cut interest rates for the second time

this year and the Bank of England decision now awaited.

With artificial intelligence still the dominant driver

stateside, Nvidia's ( NVDA ) vault on Tuesday to become the

world's most valuable company offers the latest twist. It's

stock was another 1% higher again before Thursday's bell and

S&P500 futures were up 0.4%.

With the dollar buoyant across the piece, China continued to

offer a nervy counter point to ebullient world markets.

The offshore yuan skidded to its weakest level of the

year even as the People's Bank of China left its interest rate

setting unchanged and Chinese stocks once again bucked the world

trend.

Down again on Thursday, mainland Chinese stocks

have now underperformed the wider MSCI all-country index

by some 8% this year.

With the PBOC guiding the onshore yuan lower at its daily

fixing, concern is growing that currency weakness is preventing

it from easing monetary policy to address the ongoing housing

bust.

And it also comes in tandem with fresh weakness in Japan's

yen, which hit its lowest since the Bank of Japan

intervention in April despite warnings of repeat action.

Putting the French political upheaval aside for the time

being, European stocks were higher - helped by the

latest interest rate cut on the continent.

The Swiss National Bank cut its main policy rate on Thursday

for the second time this year, maintaining the central bank's

position as a frontrunner in the global policy easing cycle and

sending the Swiss franc lower and Swiss stocks higher.

The latest quarter point cut to 1.25% has been almost 70%

priced by money markets in advance and another quarter point

easing is expected by yearend.

Norway's central bank was not for budging, however, and held

the line - more worried about spikier inflation there.

Attention now switches to the Bank of England, which

announces its latest decision on Thursday too. Not least with

July 4's British election around the corner, the BoE is expected

to stand pat for now - with a one-in-three chance of a cut at

its next meeting on August 1 now seen in money markets.

Even though headline UK inflation hit the BoE's 2% target

for the first time in three years last month, 'core' rates

remain well above 3% and services inflation is even stickier.

The BoE monetary policy committee is expected to be split 7-2 in

favour of holding rates - as it was last time around.

Sterling was a touch lower against the pumped up

dollar ahead of the decision - but up against the euro

.

In Europe, French stocks were firmer and the French

government debt spread with Germany steady after the

European Union warned on excessive French and Italian budget

deficits as expected on Wednesday - upping the ante into the

snap French parliamentary elections over the next month.

Back on Wall St, Treasury yields were a touch

higher into the re-open on Thursday - with housing data in focus

but also a keen eye on weekly jobless numbers to see if last

week's outsize jump was sustained.

The only number released during the "Juneteenth" market

holiday on Wednesday was a weaker-than-forecast NAHB housing

sentiment indicator for June.

In company news and deals, Britain's Tate & Lyle ( TATYF )

fell 6.5% after the food ingredients maker said it will buy

U.S.-based CP Kelco for $1.8 billion from J.M. Huber

Corporation.

And UK bank NatWest ( NWG ) struck a deal to acquire most of

the banking business of retailer Sainsbury's ( JSNSF ), in a deal

that would increase the British lender's assets by 2.5 billion

pounds ($3.2 billion).

Key developments that should provide more direction to U.S.

markets later on Thursday:

* Bank of England policy decision

* US May housing starts/permits, weekly jobless claims, June

Philadelphia Fed business survey, US Q1 current account; Euro

zone June consumer confidence

* San Francisco President Federal Reserve President Mary Daly

Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin and Minneapolis Fed chief

Neel Kashkari all speak

* Eurogroup meets in Luxembourg, with European Central Bank

President Christine Lagarde and ECB board member Piero Cipollone

attending

* US corporate earnings: Accenture, Kroger, Jabil, Darden

Restaurants, Smith & Wesson, Aurora Cannabis, Algoma Steel,

Mynaric

(By Mike Dolan, editing by Editing by William Maclean

[email protected])