Thursday's session was shaped by two dominant cross-asset forces: a sharp Wall Street sell-off driven by Walmart's circa 9.2% collapse on weak Q2 earnings, and a concurrent rally in safe-haven assets as the US 10-year Treasury yield fell 6 basis points to 4.65% and gold added 0.60% to $4,516/oz. The VIX jumped 7.52% to 16.01, signalling a meaningful uptick in near-term uncertainty, while Brent crude surged 2.36% to $93.78/bbl — sustaining the energy-driven inflation narrative that has kept the Fed, ECB, and BoE on hold for multiple consecutive meetings. The S&P 500 at 7,641 is now down 0.87% on the session, with consumer discretionary and tech among the hardest-hit pockets of the US market.

For European investors, the overnight read-across is concentrated in several specific fault lines. The EUR/USD rally of 0.82% to 1.1674 and USD/CHF collapse of 1.77% to 0.7978 point to broad dollar weakness alongside genuine safe-haven demand for the franc — EUR/CHF fell 0.96% to 0.9312, confirming the franc bid is not purely a dollar story. European banks face a twin headwind: ING and Munich Re were already the session's worst performers in the Euro Stoxx 50 on Thursday, down 2.43% and 1.72% respectively, and the US consumer weakness signal from Walmart adds to credit-demand concern. The auto sector — Stellantis (+5.90%) and Volkswagen (+2.52%) were Thursday's top Euro Stoxx 50 gainers — now faces a Friday retest against softer US risk sentiment, given their export exposure. Energy input costs remain the structural overhang, with TTF gas at 65.28 EUR/MWh and German power at 120.55 EUR/MWh keeping pressure on chemicals (sector down 0.79% Thursday) and utilities (RWE -1.72% Thursday).