European Shares Seen Lower Before Big Tech Earnings, Fed Decision

(RTTNews) - European stocks are seen opening lower on Wednesday as investors await cues from tech earnings and the upcoming Federal Reserve's interest-rate decision.

U.S. stock futures were mixed after an AI-fueled tech rally sent U.S. stocks to a higher close overnight.

Earlier today, South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix reported a more than sevenfold surge in quarterly operating profit to a record high, beating market expectations on robust AI-driven demand for memory chips.

Alphabet and Microsoft are scheduled to report their quarterly earnings results later today, followed by Amazon on Thursday.

Asian markets were mostly higher, with South Korea's Kospi surging more than 6 percent and Japan's Nikkei rising 1 percent on eased concerns about the profitability of the artificial-intelligence business.

U.S. Treasuries were little changed, while the U.S. dollar held near a two-week high ahead of the Federal Reserve's rate decision later today, followed by rate decisions from the European Central Bank and Bank of Japan this week.

The U.S. central bank is expected to keep rates steady despite inflation data for September coming in hotter than expected.

Gold fell 0.6 percent to $4,036 an ounce after rising 1.1 percent to about $4,060 an ounce in the previous session.

Brent crude futures jumped 1.4 percent toward $116 a barrel, paring losses from the previous two sessions as investors monitored election results in Israel and assessed efforts to de-escalate tensions in the Persian Gulf.

Overnight, U.S. stocks closed higher as easing oil prices soothed inflation jitters and chip stocks gained for a third straight session on news of Anthropic's much-anticipated IPO and strong earnings from SpaceX.

Oil prices fell for a second straight day after Iranian leader Mojtaba Khamenei called for pursuing the conditions set out by Iranian officials with the aim of ending the war.

Markets were buoyed by renewed optimism surrounding artificial intelligence as Meta Platforms Inc.'s upsized $25 billion share sale ended five times oversubscribed, Broadcom announced a $63 billion AI hardware deal, and Oracle expanded its OpenAI and Nvidia partnerships.

Data showed rising new orders for computers and peripheral equipment, confirming that capital expenditure in the technology sector remains strong.

Another report revealed U.S. consumer confidence unexpectedly improved in October for the first time in four months amid an easing in gasoline prices.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rallied 1.2 percent and the S&P 500 rose 0.6 percent while the narrower Dow ended little changed after aerospace giant Boeing cut its delivery target.

European stocks ended mostly higher on Tuesday as oil prices extended declines on hopes of renewed negotiations between the U.S. and Iran to end their war.

The pan-European STOXX 600 advanced half a percent. The German DAX surged 0.7 percent and France's CAC 40 gained half a percent while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 fell 0.8 percent after disappointing earnings from HSBC Holdings.