Daily Briefing: One down, three to go

By Dhara Ranasinghe and Danilo Masoni

LONDON (Reuters) – A day after the Federal Reserve ended its final meeting of the year with a vow to keep funnelling cash into markets until the U.S. economic recovery is secure, focus on Thursday turns to central bank meetings in the UK, Switzerland and Norway.

The Bank of England will likely refrain from yet more stimulus as it waits to see if a possible no-deal Brexit in two weeks’ time can be averted.

Switzerland’s central bank meanwhile may be pressed further on its currency management policy after Wednesday’s move by the Trump administration to label the country a currency manipulator alongside Vietnam.

Hopes of fiscal stimulus in the United States meanwhile has lifted stock markets to record highs and helped boost oil prices to their strongest since March.

U.S. lawmakers appear to be edging closer to agreement on a $900 billion virus-relief spending package, with top Democrats and Republicans sounding more positive than before.

The dollar, however, is refusing to share in the Christmas cheer, languishing at 2-1/2 year lows as investors ditch safe assets for riskier ones.

On the corporate front, pressure is building on Big Tech after a group of U.S. states accused Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) of working with Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) to unlawfully boost its dominant online advertising business. The news, however, doesn’t appear to halt Nasdaq’s record breaking run.

Some signs of cooling in the IPO frenzy emerged with shares in e-commerce firm Wish down 16% in its market debut.

In Europe, there was some more bolt-on dealmaking in the biotech sector with Novartis agreeing to buy neuroscience company Cadent for up to $770 million. Credit Agricole (PA:CAGR) said it had no plan to increase its Creval bid.

Key developments that should provide more direction to markets on Thursday:

* 0830 GMT SNB monetary policy announcement

* 0900 GMT Norway’s central bank policy decision

* 1200 GMT Bank of England rate decision

* 1330 GMT Philadelphia Fed business outlook

* 1600 GMT ECB’s Schnabel Speaks