SINGAPORE/LONDON - European shares followed Asia higher on Thursday, driven by news of economic stimulus from China and a fall in oil prices on a report that Saudi Arabia is preparing to abandon its unofficial price target of $100 a barrel.

Europe's Stoxx 600 jumped 1 percent in early trading, closing in on August's all-time high. Brent and US crude futures were each down over 2 percent, after the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that Saudi Arabia is preparing to abandon its unofficial price target of $100 a barrel for crude as it prepares to increase output.

European energy stocks, down around 3 percent, were the only sector to be well in the red. Elsewhere the combined impact of the stories was good for everything from tech stocks in Europe and Asia to European luxury shares and national bourses from Spain to South Korea.

S&P futures were up 0.75 percent and Nasdaq futures were up 1.36 percent, given an extra boost by an after-hours surge by Micron Technology shares after it forecast higher than expected revenue due to AI demand for chips, also a factor in Korean share gains.

Rates outlook

Central banks were in focus too, and the Swiss National Bank cut rates by 25 basis points on Thursday, choosing not to go for a larger 50-bp move that markets had seen as a possibility. It was the SNB's third such move this year.

That caused a knee-jerk strengthening in the Swiss franc against the dollar and euro, but that did not hold, and it was last at 0.9461 to the common European currency. Investors also had their eye on a raft of speeches from Federal Reserve policymakers later in the day, including remarks from Chair Jerome Powell, which could provide further clues on the US rate outlook.

The release of the core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index - the Fed's preferred measure of inflation - is also due on Friday.

"I don't think the reaction will be excessive, but the direction will be there," said Jeff Ng, head of Asia macro strategy at SMBC, referring to Friday's data release. "If prices are sticky, then maybe that will slightly dampen expectations for a 50-basis-point (rate cut)."

Markets are now pricing in a roughly 62 percent chance of a 50-bp cut at the Fed's November policy meeting and see a total of 77 bps worth of cuts by the year end.

Shifting expectations of how aggressive the Fed would ease rates this year and next have kept the dollar largely rangebound over the past month.

In currencies, the Australian and New Zealand dollars drew additional support from the latest news out of China, with the Aussie gaining 0.5 percent to $0.6861.

The euro was flat on the dollar at $1.11467, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield was also steady at 3.783 percent.

Elsewhere, spot gold rose 0.25 percent to $2,662.5 an ounce, having scaled a record high on Wednesday.