European stock markets are seen opening sharply lower Friday, ending the week with confidence at a low ebb given fears of more economic damage from fresh Covid-inspired lockdowns and with next week’s U.S. presidential election causing uncertainty.

Speculative bets that Joe Biden will win the White House on Nov. 3 and bring a steadier tone to rocky Sino-U.S. relations have turbocharged the strongest yuan rally in years, and Chinese authorities have started pushing back.

Russian market indexes were in the green during the trading session on Thursday.

As of 10:30 am, the dollar was down by 0.69 at 78.685 rubles, while the euro was down by 0.57% trading at 92.497 rubles.

The Bank of Russia sold 9.8 bln rubles ($124 mln) worth of foreign exchange on the domestic market with settlements on October 28 as part of preventive measures curbing volatility, the regulator reported on Thursday.

The Russian stock indices showed mixed dynamics at the opening of trading on the Moscow Exchange on Thursday.

At the same time, the majority of the surveyed Russian depositors (98%) have ruble accounts and deposits for keeping free funds.

Japanese shares fell to a one-month low on Thursday weighed by concerns about fresh coronavirus lockdowns in Europe, although companies issuing bullish forecasts during earnings season limited losses.

Big Tech reports in the shape of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB); the U.S. will publish third-quarter GDP figures that will break records but not bring GDP back to where it was before the pandemic; weekly jobless claims will give a more up-to-date look at the state of the economy; the European Central Bank meets a day after France and Germany tightened their public health measures to stop the coronavirus, and central banks became net sellers of gold for the first time in a decade in the third quarter.

European stock markets edged higher Thursday, bouncing off Wednesday’s sharp losses, helped by some positive corporate news and ahead of the latest European Central Bank meeting.