MSCI Asia Pacific

Welcome to the one year anniversary of the Brexit vote. Welcome also to the annual Russell rebalance, traditionally one of the busiest trading days of the year: according to Bloomberg, last year's rebalance helped propel a near record turnover of over 15 billion shares, as a result of the $8.5 trillion in stocks linked to the various Russell indices, many of which will be forced to find new owners after today's index recomposition. In fact, in four of the last five years, reconstitution day ranked in the 10 busiest trading sessions.

European and Asian stocks, as well as S&P futures were little changed ahead of "Super Thursday's" events which include the U.K. general election, Comey's testimony and the ECB policy decision. That however may change following a Bloomberg news report that the ECB is set to cut inflation forecasts through 2019 due to weaker energy prices, suggesting the "hawkish" ECB announcement some had expected tomorrow has been postponed.

The day after Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord, stocks are set for new all time highs with S&P futures up 0.2%, boosted by green markets across Europe and Asia, where the Nikkei rose above 20,000 for the first time since 2015. World stocks are set for new record highs, having already gained 11% so far this year, ahead of today's US nonfarm payrolls which are expected to increase by 185,000 jobs after surging 211,000 in April.

S&P futures are little changed this morning, while Asian shares rise and European stocks (+0.5%) are poised to snap a five-day losing streak amid a broad-based rally. The pound declined as better-than-expected manufacturing data failed to offset political risk before the impending election, while crude oil gained.

It has been another quiet session for global equity markets, with S&P futures flat, as are European and Asian stocks, which is perhaps odd, as there was quite a bit of newsflow and, in the case of China, outright fireworks.