European Shares Seen Opening Up As Trade War Worries Ease

(RTTNews) - European stocks look set to open on a buoyant note Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump announced trade deals with Japan & Philippines, sparking hopes for broader progress on international trade.

The U.S. trade deal with Japan includes a 15 percent American tariff on Japanese imports and a $550 billion investment plan.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said that he needed to examine the details of the negotiations and the agreement.

The Philippines will pay a 19 percent tariff under a new trade deal and agreed to work together Militarily, Trump said in a Truth Social post as EU, India talks lag.

China has warned that any U.S.-Philippine cooperation should not 'target or harm" third parties.

An EU-China summit is scheduled for Thursday, with trade imbalance, the war in Ukraine, and rare earths on top of the agenda.

On the earnings front, Texas Instruments Inc. gave a disappointing forecast, sending its shares down over 8 percent in extended trading Tuesday.

Google parent Alphabet and electric car maker Tesla will unveil their financial results after the U.S. closing bell later today.

On the economic front, Eurozone consumer confidence data and U.S. existing home sales figures may garner some attention ahead of Thursday's ECB meeting and the Federal Reserve's policy meeting next week.

Asian stocks were broadly higher, with Japan's Nikkei surging over 3 percent. China's yuan rose to a three-week high after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he will meet his Chinese counterparts in Stockholm next week for their third round of trade talks and will work out what is likely an extension" to the current Aug. 12 deadline for negotiations.

He said that the negotiations with China can now take on a broader array of topics, potentially including Beijing's continued purchases of "sanctioned" oil from Russia and Iran.

The dollar index was flat while yields edged up slightly as Bessent said he was not pushing Fed Chair Jerome Powell to leave his post.

"Based on the way they cut rates last fall, they should be cutting rates now," he said.

However, President Trump called Powell a "numbskull" and predicted that he would be no longer in the role within eight months.

At the Large Banks Conference in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, Powell didn't comment on the outlook for the economy or interest rates.

Gold slipped from a five-week high in Asian trade while oil prices rose after falling for three consecutive sessions.

Investors now await official inventory data after the American Petroleum Institute reported a surprising drop of 577,000 barrels in U.S. crude inventories for the week ended July 18.

U.S. stocks ended mixed overnight as investors reacted to a slew of earnings and fresh trade developments.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.4 percent, while the S&P 500 inched up marginally and the Dow added 0.4 percent.

European stocks ended lower for a third consecutive session on Tuesday due to growing uncertainty over U.S.- EU trade talks and some disappointing earnings updates.

The pan European STOXX 600 declined 0.4 percent. The German DAX lost 1.1 percent and France's CAC 40 shed 0.7 percent while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 inched up by 0.1 percent.