Peter Nurse  

Investing.com — It has been an active week for central banks as the European Central Bank met. While the Democrats struggle to reach an agreement on funding their massive spending program across the Atlantic, corporate investors are increasingly turning to the green sectors to help raise funds. Wall Street will open higher this earnings season, with Ford shining and the crude market sliding back following a significant increase in U.S. inventories. This is what you should know about financial markets Thursday 28 October.

1. ECB Next with Central Bankers in Focus

The meets later Thursday, in what has been a busy week for the globe’s central bankers, amid growing pressure to act to combat surging prices.

Europe’s central bank will keep policy unchanged at 7:45 AM ET (1145 GMT), and President Christine Lagarde is likely to set the stage for the rolling back of its asset purchase program at its December meeting.

She is expected to emphasize that the ECB has no plans to hike interest rates. This is despite the fact that inflation is climbing faster than ever since 2008. Some of her peers have already raised rates or are planning to.

The maintained its interest rates unchanged and its asset purchasing plans unaffected, but reduced its forecasts for economic growth and inflation. The also decided not to defend the bond-yield goal, raising hopes for Tuesday’s policy meeting.

It kept its overnight rate of 0.25% at its key level on Wednesday and announced it is ending its bond buying program. Also, it indicated that interest rates could be raised as early as April 2022. 

2. Democrats are fighting over the spending bill

Democrats in the House and Senate were unable Wednesday to come to an agreement over how to pay for the party’s proposed massive spending bill.

The House tax-writing chairman stated that a proposal for a levy to billionaires’ assets was dropped during negotiations about revenue measures.

According to Reuters, the President will be visiting Capitol Hill Thursday to seek an agreement or at the very least a framework on his spending plan. He then departs to Rome for a meeting of the Group of 20 leaders, which is followed by the United Nations summit on climate change in Scotland. 

He has struggled to implement his legislative agenda, raising doubts about whether the U.S. is capable of leading the world in combating climate change or post-pandemic recovery.

3. Ford shines as Ford leads the charge in stocks

Stocks in the United States are expected to open higher this morning, continuing to build on the positive tone of a strong earnings season. Ford is set to be a shining example.

By 5:10 am ET (0910 GMT), they were up 50 points or 0.1%. The gained 10 points or 0.2% and rose 75 percent, or 0.5%.

Ford stock traded 9% higher premarket after the auto giant reported a stronger-than-expected third-quarter profit late Wednesday and raised its full-year earnings forecast as strong demand for its trucks helped offset the hit from a global semiconductor shortage.

On Thursday, the earnings flood will continue with Apple (NASDAQ :), the biggest company in the world and Amazon (NASDAQ 🙂 at the forefront.

Investors will be closely watching the third-quarter annualized rate of growth. The release is expected to show growth slowed to 2.7%, its slowest pace in more than a year and down from the previous quarter’s 6.7% growth,, as supply-side bottlenecks and Covid-19 infections weighed.

4. Green issuing to soar

Investors place increasing demands on corporations that they improve their sustainability credentials. To meet this demand, many have begun issuing environmental, social, and governance bonds as a way to raise funds for low-carbon projects.

According to Thursday’s Climate Bonds Initiative survey, investment in green bonds will double to $1 trillion by 2022.

This London-based non-profit organization also predicts that green bonds will hit a new record of $500 Billion this year. That’s up from the $297 Billion recorded last year.

5. An unexpected drop in crude oil prices due to U.S. inventory losses, Iran talks

After an unexpectedly large increase in crude oil stocks last week, prices fell on Thursday.

U.S. crude oil futures fell 0.6% to $82.19 per barrel at 5:10 am ET. This was a drop of 2.4% from Wednesday’s decline. Futures fell 0.7% to $83.30 per barrel. This is a drop of more than 2% from the previous session.

U.S. crude stockpiles rose by 4.3million barrels last Wednesday, the reported late Wednesday. That’s more than twice what was expected from the 1.9m-barrel increase and well above the 2.3million-barrel gain predicted by the industry-funded Tuesday.

The news that Iran’s nuclear negotiator has announced that Tehran will resume negotiations to revive its 2015 nuclear agreement by November 31st added to the negativity. Iran wants to lift U.S. restrictions on oil sales to the rest of the world. The last meeting was June.

European prices dropped Thursday, as Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed Gazprom to fill its European storage facilities starting on Nov. 8, one day after it completed the Russian processing. 

The move will “create a more favorable situation on the European energy market,” Putin said at a meeting broadcast on state television Wednesday.