European Shares Seen Tad Lower At Open

(RTTNews) - European stocks may drift lower on Wednesday as market participants assess the outcome of U.S.-China trade negotiations.

Following two days of high-level talks in London, top U.S. and Chinese officials agreed on a "framework" to move forward on trade, which first need to be approved by leaders in Washington and Beijing.

The framework reportedly targets lifting China's restrictions on rare earth mineral exports in exchange for the U.S. easing certain export curbs, especially on semiconductors.

In another development, a federal court said that U.S. President Donald Trump's "liberation day" tariffs can remain in effect while the legal battle over them rages.

The appeals court also said it is speeding the matter to the full court, skipping over the usual three-judge panel approach that predominates in federal appeals-court action.

Asian markets traded higher on optimism over progress in trade talks. Oil prices were little changed in Asian trade.

Gold ticked higher on dollar weakness ahead of the release of highly anticipated May's U.S. consumer inflation report later in the day.

Economists expect the headline CPI to have grown 2.4 percent from a year earlier. A hot report may fuel inflationary concerns and dent Fed rate cut hopes.

U.S. stocks eked out modest gains overnight after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the U.S.-China trade negotiations went really, really well.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.6 percent to end higher for a third day running while the Dow added 0.3 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 0.6 percent.

European stocks ended mixed on Tuesday as investors monitored updates from Sino-U.S. talks.

The pan European STOXX 600 finished marginally lower. The German DAX fell 0.8 percent while France's CAC 40 and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 both gained around 0.2 percent.