By Geoffrey Smith 

Investing.com — Global markets extend their gains on relief at the lack of immediate tightening by the Federal Reserve and a stay of execution for China Evergrande. Norway is the first advanced-economy central bank to raise rates after the pandemic. Brazil follows suit with a hike of 1%, while the Bank of England, the Bank of England, and other banks are likely to remain neutral. The weekly jobless claims will be due. Robinhood (NASDAQ:) gets a piece of the week’s IPO actions and Citigroup (NYSE:) issues a dire warning on prices. What you need to know about the financial markets this Thursday, September 23rd. 

1. Global markets extend Fed/Evergrande relief rally

Global markets continued their rise as China’s central bank again injected large amount of liquidity into the financial system while authorities worked on a short-term fix to stop real estate developer Evergrande officially defaulting.

The authorities instructed Evergrande not to default on an interest payment of $83million on a bond worth $16 million due this Thursday, according to newswires. However, it wasn’t clear how Evergrande would get its hands on the money needed.

Other real estate stocks in China rallied amid a backdrop of reports suggesting that Evergrande will be split up in such a manner as to avoid defaulting on individuals and suppliers, something seen as key to preserving confidence in the market, albeit without answering longer-term doubts about the sector’s overdue deleveraging.

2. Let it go – Norway, Brazil hike but BoE, CBRT expected to stand pat

Norway’s central bank became the first among major advanced economies to raise interest rates since the pandemic. Norges Bank raised its key rate from 0% to 0.255% in December. It also signaled a new hike in December. The bank increased its expectation for its key rate in 2022 from 1.3% to 1.4%.

It’s still the outlier: the Bank of England isn’t expected to change policy when it announces its latest decisions at 7 AM ET (1100 GMT), mindful that the government is withdrawing significant fiscal support from the economy.  The key rate in Switzerland was also unchanged.

The dovisher stance of emerging market central bank has been evident in the last weeks. Turkey, Thailand, and the Philippines are expected to keep rates unchanged today. The outlier here is Brazil, which tightened by 100 basis points on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve’s meeting.

3. Stocks set to open higher; jobless claims due

U.S. stock markets are set to open higher again, extending the gains made in the wake of Wednesday’s Fed press conference.

The Fed’s new ‘dot plot’ shows half of the policy-makers on the board now support an interest rate hike next year, a stark contrast from earlier this year when the majority saw no hikes until 2024. Jerome Powell, Fed Chair, suggested that central banks could end bond purchases in the middle next year. 

The market is now close to the record highs it reached earlier this month despite significant changes in monetary policies expectations over recent weeks. By 6:15 AM ET, were up 118 points, or 0.3%, while were up 0.4% and were up 0.5%.  Results are due early from Accenture (NYSE:) and Darden Restaurants (NYSE:), while Nike (NYSE:), Trip.com and Costco (NASDAQ:) report after the bell.

At 8:30 AM ET, weekly unemployment numbers will be published.

4. Robinhood gets a piece of the IPO action

The sense of relief at the Fed’s new guidance and news out of China has provided a positive backdrop for the current spate of IPOs in New York.

Freshworks, which is a business-oriented software firm that has been compared to Salesforce (NYSE:), saw its stock surge 36% upon Wednesday’s debut. Toast, the payments software company, witnessed its stock jump 56%.

The week will see discount brokerage Robinhood involved in at least three IPOs – Brilliant Earth, a company focusing on ethically-sourced jewellery, medical diagnostics company Cue Health, and U.K.-based miner Argo Blockchain.

5. Citi warns of natural gas apocalypse

Winter is coming to the natural gas market, according to Citigroup analysts at least.

Gas prices could rise to over $100 per Million Btu due to low European inventories, strong Chinese demand and limited supply from Russia to Nigeria. That’s equivalent to an oil price of $580 a barrel.

Citi analysts noted that global markets are vulnerable to spikes in oil prices throughout winter because of the difficulty in increasing supply. At least in the short term, one of the factors behind this month’s rally has reversed: the wind has started blowing across north-western Europe again, reducing the need for fossil-fueled power in the U.K.