European stock futures edge lower; risk-off sentiment prevails

By Peter Nurse

Investing.com - European stock markets are expected to open slightly lower Tuesday, as investors fret about the region’s economic outlook while central banks continue to tackle inflation at elevated levels.

At 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT), the DAX futures contract in Germany traded 0.3% lower, CAC 40 futures in France dropped 0.2%, and the FTSE 100 futures contract in the U.K. fell 0.2%.

Risk-off sentiment is holding sway globally Tuesday, with European equities set to follow the negative close on Wall Street after U.S. services sector activity unexpectedly accelerated in November, raising concerns that the Federal Reserve could continue to tighten monetary policy aggressively.

Back in Europe, the European Central Bank is also expected to increase interest rates next week, and will have to raise interest rates several more times to tame price pressures, according to ECB chief economist Philip Lane

"We do expect that more rate increases will be necessary, but a lot has been done already," the Italian paper Milano Finanza quoted Lane as saying on Tuesday. "I would be reasonably confident in saying that it is likely we are close to peak inflation."

And there’s not even a reasonably healthy economy to fall back on.

Data released on Monday showed that Eurozone business activity declined for a fifth month in November, indicating that the region’s economy was headed for a recession next year, while retail sales slumped as consumers slashed spending amid surging inflation.

Industrial orders from Germany, the biggest economy in the Eurozone, rose 0.8% in October, data released Tuesday showed. This was more than expected, and represents an improvement from the revised 2.9% drop the prior month, but offers very little to celebrate.

In the corporate sector, Porsche AG (ETR:P911_p) will be in the spotlight after exchange operator Deutsche Boerse said on Monday the sportscar manufacturer will join the German blue-chip DAX index on Dec. 19, just over two months after its market debut.

Porsche AG will replace sportswear maker Puma (ETR:PUMG), which will move down to the MDAX index.

Crude oil prices rebounded Tuesday after the previous session’s sharp losses, on continued optimism of a recovery in Chinese demand as several cities in the world’s top crude importer relaxed more COVID curbs over the weekend.

Oil prices slumped more than 3% on Monday after the strong U.S. services sector data, while traders digested the EU import ban and Group of Seven's $60-a-barrel price cap on seaborne Russian oil coming into force.

By 02:00 ET, U.S. crude futures traded 0.8% higher at $77.56 a barrel, while the Brent contract rose 0.8% to $83.37.

Additionally, gold futures fell 0.1% to $1,780.45/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% lower at 1.0483.