Thursday preview: BoE, ECB and BoJ policy announcements due

(Sharecast News) - On Thursday, the Bank of England, European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan will make their latest policy announcements. On the corporate front, full-year results are due in the UK from Energean and IG Group, while quarterly results from e-commerce giant Alibaba and cruise operator Carnival will also be in focus.

Derren Nathan, head of equity analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown, said Alibaba's third-quarter results are expected to show a continuing trend of top-line improvements and a shrinking bottom line as the Chinese conglomerate spends heavily on cloud computing and on-demand delivery services.

"Analysts are forecasting an acceleration in cloud intelligence growth to 33%, reflecting high levels of investment and a pivot to AI-related products, which have shown triple-digit growth for nine consecutive quarters," he said. "This part of the business is grabbing investor attention, but it's a relatively small piece of the pie compared to the more established ecommerce division, which is facing intense competitive pressures.

"Sluggish retail sales in China in the last two months of 2025 mean there could be room for disappointment on this front, which could see free cash flow take another dip. The balance sheet doesn't pose an immediate concern, but if cash generation remains weak and capital expenditure commitments take another step-up, finances could start to look a little stretched."

Meanwhile, the Bank of England, the ECB and the BoJ are all expected to stand pat on interest rates.

As far as the BoE is concerned, Danske Bank noted that over the past couple of weeks, markets have priced in rates remaining at 3.75%.

"The war in the Middle East implies huge uncertainty on the outlook from here, but for now our base case remains a cut in April and another one in November," it said. "We will look closely at MPC members' views on what the right policy response is, if energy prices remain elevated.

"We see risk of the significant repricing of the BoE to revert, opening up for a move higher in EUR/GBP."

Danske also expects the ECB to leave the deposit rate unchanged at 2% in line with consensus and market pricing. All the focus will be on signals, it said

"We expect Lagarde to strike a balance between the camps by stating that ECB is fully commitment to price stability and ready to act to upward price pressures, but at the same acknowledge highted uncertainty and that it is too early to draw firm conclusions."

The BOJ is also widely expected to leave rates on hold at 0.75%.