European Shares Set For Positive Open

(RTTNews) - European stocks look set to extend gains from the previous session on Thursday amid receding concerns over the Federal Reserve's aggressive interest rate hikes.

Traders will now closely follow comments from Federal Reserve officials to find out whether or not inflation has peaked.

Asian stocks joined a global rally, with Japanese markets closed for a holiday.

U.S. stock futures ticked higher after Disney posted better-than-expected earnings on both the top and bottom line.

Oil dipped slightly to hover below $92 a barrel, after having risen sharply overnight on data showing a bigger-than-expected drop in gasoline inventories in the U.S.

Gold prices dipped in Asian trading as the dollar and Treasury yields rebounded on hawkish Fed comments.

Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari on Wednesday said the Fed is "far, far away from declaring victory" on inflation and that the U.S. central bank will need to raise its policy rate another 1.5 percentage points this year and more in 2023, even if that causes a recession.

Chicago counterpart Charles Evans said the July CPI data was positive but inflation remains "unacceptably high".

U.S. reports on weekly jobless claims and producer price inflation due out later in the day may offer additional clues about the strength of the world's largest economy.

U.S. stocks rose sharply to reach three-month highs overnight after data showed inflation grew at a slower pace than expected in July, helping ease recession fears and worries about aggressive monetary tightening.

The consumer price index unexpectedly came in flat in July compared with June and rose 8.5 percent year-on-year, reflecting a bigger than expected slowdown from the 9.1 percent spike in June.

The Dow rallied 1.6 percent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite surged 2.9 percent and the S&P 500 jumped 2.1 percent.

European stocks closed higher on Wednesday and bond yields fell amid hopes that U.S. inflation may have finally peaked.

The pan European Stoxx 600 gained 0.9 percent. The German DAX climbed 1.2 percent, France's CAC 40 index rose half a percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 edged up 0.3 percent.