European Shares Likely To Open On Soft Note Before US Inflation Data

(RTTNews) - European stocks are likely to open on a sluggish note Wednesday after the much-anticipated showdown between Donald Trump and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris offered little policy details on issues such as immigration, foreign policy and healthcare.

Asian stocks were lower, with Chinese, Hong Kong and Japanese markets leading regional declines as worries persisted about the health of the Chinese economy and the yen surged to an eight-month high following hawkish comments from Bank of Japan board member Junko Nakagawa.

The focus now shifts to the U.S. consumer price inflation reading later in the day that could offer fresh insights into the central bank's interest rate plans.

There is fair amount of uncertainty around the size of the cut at next week's Federal Reserve meeting. Markets are pricing in one out of three chances of a 50-basis point cut and anticipate 114 bps of easing this year.

The European Central Bank is expected to cut rates again on Thursday in a prelude to the Fed move.

In economic releases, U.K. GDP estimate for July and U.K. Industrial and manufacturing output for July may influence trading sentiment as the day progresses.

The dollar was on the back foot while gold edged up slightly due to risk-off sentiment prevailing in global financial markets.

Oil prices were up about half a percent after falling to their lowest levels in more than a year the previous day on demand concerns.

OPEC on Tuesday cut its forecast for global oil demand growth in 2024 and also trimmed its expectation for next year, marking the producer group's second consecutive downward revision.

U.S. stocks fluctuated before closing mixed overnight ahead of the Harris-Trump debate and August's CPI inflation report.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 0.8 percent and the S&P 500 added half a percent to score back-to-back gains while the Dow dipped 0.2 percent, pressured by a fall in oil prices to near three-year lows and a slew of cautious comments from American bank executives.

European markets closed lower on Tuesday, dragged down by banks and energy stocks.

The pan European STOXX 600 dipped half a percent. The German DAX lost 1 percent, France's CAC 40 slid 0.2 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 shed 0.8 percent.