European Shares Seen Opening Up On China Stimulus

(RTTNews) - European stocks are likely to open higher on Wednesday after China stepped up support for the world's second largest economy. The Chinese government unveiled new stimulus plans that include issuing additional sovereign debt and raising the budget deficit ratio, confirming with the country's economic development goals.

Elsewhere, the Nikkei newspaper reported that Japan's government is considering spending around $33 billion for pay-outs to low-income households and an income tax cut in a package of measures to cushion the blow to households from rising living costs.

Asian markets traded mostly higher, led by China, Hong Kong and Japan. Australian stocks were moving lower after inflation rate came in hotter than expected in the three months through September, prompting calls that the Reserve Bank will deliver another rate hike on 7 November.

Oil extended losses in Asian trade, after having fallen over 6 percent during the previous three sessions on demand concerns.

Gold held steady as strong business activity data boosted the U.S. dollar and global leaders continued their efforts to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from spreading.

After Fed Chair Jerome Powell pledged to move carefully on rates, traders now await the release of the U.S. GDP numbers for the third quarter on Thursday and the PCE price index on Friday for further direction.

The European economic calendar remains light, with business sentiment survey data from Germany and monetary aggregates from the euro area awaited later in the day.

Meanwhile, the European Central Bank is widely expected to keep rates unchanged on Thursday.

In earnings news, Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc. both reported mostly strong quarterly results after Tuesday's closing bell, but there is a sense that AI is helping Microsoft's cloud business more than it is helping Google's. Amazon and Meta will report later this week.

U.S. stocks closed higher overnight as bond yields stabilized and investors cheered strong earnings from the likes of GE, Coca-Cola, Spotify and 3M.

The Dow climbed 0.6 percent to snap a four-day losing run, while the S&P 500 gained 0.7 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rallied 0.9 percent.

European stocks rose for the first time in five days on Tuesday as investors looked ahead to the ECB monetary policy announcement and key U.S. economic data due later in the week.

The pan European STOXX 600 edged up 0.4 percent. The German DAX rose half a percent, France's CAC 40 added 0.6 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 edged up 0.2 percent.