A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Rae

Wee

After drowning for days in headlines about Donald Trump's

return to the White House, investors were delivered a bit of a

diversion on Thursday with the announcement of new Chinese

measures to boost its ailing stock market.

Beijing plans to channel hundreds of billions of yuan per

year from state-owned insurers' funds into the stock market,

including at least 100 billion yuan ($13.75 billion) in the

first half of this year, according to China Securities

Regulatory Commission head Wu Qing.

Chinese authorities are urgently trying to shore up their

sagging stock markets, where the main benchmarks have fallen 3%

so far this month despite a rise in major share markets

elsewhere.

China's CSI300 blue-chip index and the Shanghai

Composite Index jumped more than 1% after the news, as

did the Hang Seng Index, although they have since

relinquished some of those gains.

The news from China offered little support to MSCI's

broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan

, which retreated on Thursday after seven

straight sessions of gains.

European shares also looked set for a negative open along

with their U.S. counterparts, suggesting that enthusiasm over

Trump's mammoth spending plans for artificial intelligence

infrastructure may be ebbing after lifting shares on Wednesday.

Trump offered little detail on how the $500 billion

private-sector investment would be funded, although The

Information reported that OpenAI and Japanese conglomerate

SoftBank would each commit $19 billion to the project.

The data calendar is light in Europe on Thursday. A rate

decision is due from Norges Bank, which is widely expected to

keep rates on hold.

The Bank of Japan kicked off its two-day policy meeting on

Thursday and markets have about fully priced in a 25-basis-point

rate hike after hints last week by BOJ policymakers.

It would likely take both the expected rate hike and an

explicit promise of more hikes ahead to stop a renewed fall in

the yen, which on Thursday continued to drift away

from a one-month high hit early in the week.

Key developments that could influence markets on Thursday:

- Norges Bank rate decision

- U.S. weekly jobless claims

- American Airlines, General Electric earnings