European Shares Seen Tad Lower At Open

(RTTNews) - European stocks are seen opening a tad lower on Wednesday as Ukraine war discussions remain stalled and Netflix earnings disappointed.

U.S. President Donald Trump said his plan for a swift meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Budapest, Hungary, was on hold because he doesn't want it to be a "waste of time."

Netflix's share price fell over 6 percent in after-hours trading after the streaming giant missed Wall Street's third-quarter earnings targets because of a tax dispute with Brazilian authorities.

Credit card giant Capital One Financial easily beat third-quarter earnings views, while toymaker Mattel missed Wall Street estimates for third-quarter revenue and profit.

AT&T, Hilton and Winnebago are among the companies due to report their quarterly results before the U.S. opening bell later today.

Meanwhile, with most U.S. economic reports indefinitely delayed, traders eagerly await the release of September consumer price index report on Friday for additional clues on the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting next week.

Markets currently expect the Federal Reserve to announce a quarter percentage point reduction in the overnight borrowing rate, and another cut in December.

The European economic calendar remains light, with inflation data from the U.K. awaited later in the day.

U.K. consumer price inflation is forecast to ease to 3.8 percent in September from 4.0 percent in August.

Output prices are expected to climb 0.2 percent on a monthly basis in September after climbing 0.5 percent in August.

Asian markets fell in cautious trade as U.S.-China tensions returned to the fore.

Treasuries and the dollar were steady while oil prices climbed nearly 2 percent after industry data showed U.S. crude inventories dropped for the first time in four weeks.

Gold edged up slightly in choppy trade, after having slumped 5.3 percent on Tuesday, the biggest drop in five years following recent sharp gains to record highs, supported by central banks-led buying and worries about fiscal woes in developed countries.

U.S. stocks ended mixed overnight after ending notably higher over the two previous sessions.

The narrower Dow rose half a percent to reach a new record closing high following generally upbeat results from the likes of 3M, Coca-Cola, General Motors and GE Aerospace.

The S&P 500 finished marginally higher while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.2 percent after President Trump said his expected meeting next week with Chinese President Xi Jinping might yet be cancelled.

European markets closed mostly higher on Tuesday as defense stocks extended gains from the previous session following another tense meeting between U.S. President Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy over the weekend.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 gained 0.2 percent. The German DAX and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 both added around 0.3 percent, while France's CAC 40 climbed 0.6 percent.