European stock markets are expected to open with small losses Tuesday, handing back some of the previous session’s gains ahead of the start of an eagerly-awaited Federal Reserve meeting.
At 2 AM ET (0700 GMT), the DAX futures contract in Germany traded 0.2% lower, CAC 40 futures in France dropped 0.1% and the FTSE 100 futures contract in the U.K. fell 0.2%.
Investors around the world are focusing on the start of the Fed’s two-day policy-setting meeting later Tuesday, with the central bank widely expected to start winding down its $120 million monthly bond-buying program.
The Fed will likely have to update its thinking about rising prices, and consequently about when it will start raising interest rates, as inflation is running at a 30-year high. What it says on this subject will be an important determinant of risk appetite in the weeks ahead.
Ahead of this, there are a number of corporate earnings for investors to focus on, with the generally positive third-quarter season having helped the main European indices post gains of just under 1% on Monday.
U.K.-based bank Standard Chartered (OTC:SCBFF) posted a stronger-than-expected pretax profit for the third quarter, aided by lower credit charges and growth in trade finance, while Swiss staffing company Adecco (SIX:ADEN) expects fourth-quarter revenues to grow modestly due to a continued increase in hiring across the continent.
Earnings from the likes of energy giant BP (NYSE:BP), German health care company Fresenius (DE:FREG) and Dutch health nutrition firm DSM (AS:DSMN) are also out. Elsewhere, shipping giant AP Moeller – Maersk (CSE:MAERSKb) said it will increase its existing buyback program by $5 billion, expecting exceptionally high shipping rates to stay strong through the first quarter of next year at least.
Investors will also follow the ongoing COP26 conference in Glasgow, a U.N. conference aimed at limiting the effects of climate change, with one hundred countries having given themselves nine years to halt and reverse deforestation, backed by a fund of $19 billion.
The FTSE MIB climbed up by 0.05% to 27,206.20. In the cash markets, the DAX Germany was trading up by 0.75% to 15,806.65. CAC 40 in France rose by 0.92% to 6,893.37 while the FTSE 100 in the U.K. was up by 0.71% to 7,288.35. ,at the time of writing.
