European Shares Seen Flat To Lower At Open

(RTTNews) - European stocks may open flat to slightly lower on Thursday as investors weigh risks at both home and abroad.

As the divided parliament prepares to begin debating next year's budget, French Socialist party said it will fight to introduce "Zucman tax" targeting richest people in the country.

Premier Sebastien Lecornu appears set to survive two no-confidence motions after announcing plans to suspend a contentious pension law.

In the U.S., the government shutdown is in its third week as the Senate failed again to advance a House-passed measure to fund the government.

A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from firing workers during the government shutdown, saying the cuts appeared to be politically motivated and were being carried out without much thought.

On the trade front, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent blasted China's plans to curb exports of rare earths "economic coercion" and "a global supply chain power grab".

"If China wants to be an unreliable partner to the world, then the world will have to decouple," Bessent said after earlier proposing a longer pause on high tariffs to ease a dispute over critical minerals.

President Donald Trump stated that the U.S. was now locked in a trade war with China, highlighting the importance of tariffs, framing them not just as economic measures, but as crucial components of national defense strategy.

In economic news, trading later in the day may be impacted by reaction to the release of EU foreign trade, U.K. GDP, industrial production and trade data.

Across the Atlantic, traders will keep an eye on the latest earnings news along with remarks by several Fed officials.

Asian markets were mostly higher amid bets the Federal Reserve will press on with monetary easing through the end of the year.

The dollar index slipped for a third day and two-year U.S. Treasury yields held at their lowest level this year after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell cautioned on sticky inflation and flagged rising downside risks to U.S. employment.

Gold added to recent gains to hit a new peak at $4,241.99 an ounce. Oil bounced back from five-month lows, with both Brent and WTI contracts rising nearly 1 percent after Trump said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pledged to stop buying oil from Russia and that he will get China to do the same thing, a move that could squeeze global supply.

Overnight, U.S. stocks fluctuated before ending mostly higher on the back of positive comments on artificial intelligence from ASML Holding and solid quarterly results from financials giants Morgan Stanley and Bank of America.

In economic releases, a report showed New York manufacturing activity has seen a significant turnaround in October. The Federal Reserve's Beige Book showed a stalled job market.

The narrower Dow edged down marginally while the S&P 500 rose 0.4 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite added 0.7 percent.

European stocks ended mixed on Wednesday following steep losses earlier this week. The pan-European Stoxx 600 gained 0.6 percent.

The German DAX slipped 0.2 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 shed 0.3 percent while France's CAC 40 surged 2 percent after luxury goods giant LVMH unexpectedly returned to sales growth in the third quarter.