European stock markets are expected to open higher Wednesday, rebounding to a degree from the previous session’s sharp losses, but investors continue to fret about higher U.S. bond yields.
At 2:01 AM ET (0610 GMT), the DAX Futures contract in Germany traded 0.6% higher, CAC 40 Futures in France climbed 0.6% and the FTSE Futures contract in the U.K. rose 0.1%.
European investors are closely watching movements in U.S. markets, after higher bond yields prompted sharp losses on Wall Street as well as in Europe. The selloff pushed the DAX and the CAC 40 down by over 2%. The 10-year Treasury yield dropped back to 1.53% later Wednesday, helping sentiment in Europe.
Also helping the tone Wednesday was the news that China Evergrande Group had agreed to sell its stake in Shengjing Bank for $1.5 billion, raising hopes the property giant will be able to make Wednesday’s $47.5 million bond interest payment deadline.
The highly-indebted property developer has been struggling to finance its debt of more than $300 billion, raising fears of a default which could have widespread repercussions.
Back in Europe, a number of the world’s central bankers, including European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and the Bank of England’s Governor Andrew Bailey, are all scheduled to speak at the ECB Forum on Central Banking on Wednesday.
The FTSE MIB climbed Down by 2.14% to 25,573.20. In the cash markets, the DAX Germany was trading down 2.09% to 15,248.65. CAC 40 in France fell by 2.17% to 6,506.37 while the FTSE 100 in the U.K. were down by 0.50% to 7,028.35. ,at the time of writing.
