European Shares Seen Tad Lower On Fed Tightening Worries

(RTTNews) - European stocks may open lower on Thursday amid concerns about global interest rates staying higher for longer.

The Bank of England is expected to hike rates again in late September after U.K. core CPI came in unchanged in July.

The FOMC meeting minutes released on Wednesday indicated that the Fed may not be done with rate hikes.

Citi economist Veronica Clark told Bloomberg that she expects the U.S. central bank o pause in September and hike by 25bps in November.

Asian markets were seeing modest losses to hover near nine-month lows on concerns over China's sluggish economic recovery.

The dollar hit a two-month peak and Treasury yields mostly rose, pushing gold prices to a five-month low. Oil traded lower for the fourth straight session amid signs of stress in China's property sector.

In economic releases, Eurostat publishes euro area foreign trade data for June later in the day. Economists forecast the trade balance to post a surplus of EUR 18.3 billion compared to a shortfall of EUR 0.3 billion posted in May.

U.S. stocks fell for a second straight session overnight while yields on longer-term Treasuries reached their highest levels since October after the latest FOMC minutes showed that Fed officials were divided over the rate hike in July and saw "significant upside risks to inflation, which could require further tightening of monetary policy."

In economic releases, housing starts for July showed positive momentum while U.S. industrial production returned to growth after two straight months of decline - separate reports showed.

The Dow dropped half a percent, the S&P 500 shed 0.8 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 1.2 percent.

European stocks ended mixed on Wednesday, as more disappointing Chinese economic data and concerns over the health of the U.S. banking sector offset positive Eurozone GDP, industrial output and U.K. inflation readings.

The pan European STOXX 600 closed flat with a negative bias. The German DAX edged up 0.1 percent, while France's CAC 40 slipped 0.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 eased 0.4 percent.