Morning Bid: BoE to make the cut as others stay the course

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

Markets expect the Bank of England to be the only mover at a slew of central bank meetings on Thursday, with a 25-basis-point rate cut to 3.75% almost as predictable as the top order collapse at the Ashes test in Adelaide.

Wednesday's unexpected drop in UK inflation has reassured investors that policy easing is in the offing, though with the highest inflation among the G7 economies at 3.2%, further rate reductions are likely to be some ways off.

Sterling nursed losses at $1.3374.[GBP/][FRX/]

The European Central Bank is widely expected to keep rates steady at 2% and signal little appetite for cuts, and may increase its growth projections. Central banks in Sweden and Norway are also seen on hold at 1.75% and 4%, respectively.

On the corporate front British oil and gas major BP appointed Meg O'Neill, the head of Australia's Woodside Energy, as its next CEO as it looks to refocus on hydrocarbons after a detour into renewables.

Activist investor Elliott Management has amassed a stake of more than $1 billion in Lululemon Athletica and is lining up a potential CEO candidate, a source told Reuters.

In a rare evening address from the White House, U.S. President Donald Trump - facing sinking approval ratings - announced a $1,776 "warrior dividend" payable to 1.45 million U.S. service members.

More importantly for investors, Trump also said he would soon announce his pick for the next chair of the Federal Reserve, adding it would be "someone who believes in lower interest rates by a lot".

November U.S. inflation data is due later on Thursday, though it won't have a month-to-month comparison since October figures were not collected during the U.S. government shutdown.

In the markets AI jitters extended from Wall Street and Asian bourses were in the red while oil was up on reports of new U.S. sanctions on Russia and its Venezuela blockade.[MKTS/GLOB]

Texan cloud computing firm Oracle is a key focus of concern and shares dived 5.4% after it announced an equity deal to support a data center project would not include a key partner Blue Owl Capital.

The stock has shed almost 50% from mid-September when a deal with OpenAI sparked a 35% one-day rally.

In Tokyo the Bank of Japan began a two-day meeting that is expected to deliver a rate hike on Friday and the yen, which could be a focus of selling if markets are not convinced on further hikes, was steady around 155.75 per dollar.

Key developments that could influence markets on Thursday:

- Policy decisions at the Bank of England, European Central Bank, Riksbank and Norges Bank

- US November CPI

(Editing by Shri Navaratnam)