Volumes have been light as the trading week draws to a close

Volumes have been light as the trading week draws to a close owing to the shutdown of U.S markets as Americans around the world celebrate Thanksgiving. Whilst U.S indices remained closed all of yesterday, today will see the equities trade on a half day basis, opening up at the usual time and closing at 18:00 GMT.

We can expect this afternoons session to be a rather more lively affair when the U.S markets re-open as investors seek to squeeze all their trading into a small window before heading into the weekend. Asian shares seem likely to end the month lower for the first time since August, trading 9.7 percent higher through 2013. Trading volumes have slumped in the past two months after prices surged 6.4 percent in September whilst the Asia-Pacific index continues to trade at 14 times estimated earnings, the highest since May.

More than $8 trillion has been added to the value of global equities this year, the biggest increase since 2009, after central banks took steps to shore up their respective economies. The markets have warmly received the anticipated appointment of Janet Yellen as new Head of the Federal Reserve, who is seen as a more dovish candidate than some of her rivals, pledging to maintain record bond purchases until data points towards a sustained and dependable recovery.

Additionally, the ECB have made incredibly similar claims to those of U.S policymakers, stressing a need to maintain stimulus as a means of navigating out of the financial crisis. The ECB, have pressed ahead with plans to maintain stimulus in the face of German criticism. This is a direct response to the ECB cutting interest rates to record lows this month and said it could take them lower still to prevent the euro zone recovery from stalling.

Meanwhile, the BoE are seemingly developing a slightly different strategy to the rest of Europe with winding down of stimulus potentially on the horizon. This comes after The pound rose to the strongest level since January as investors bet the changes to the Funding for Lending Scheme nudge the BOE toward an exit from extraordinary stimulus as the economy grows at the fastest pace in three years.

Britain’s 0.8 percent growth in the quarter through September was the quickest among the Group of Seven nations, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. That compares with 0.3 percent in Germany and 0.1 percent in the euro area, Britain’s biggest trading partner.