European stock futures lower; U.K. GDP expanded in October

By Peter Nurse 

Investing.com - European stock markets are expected to open lower Monday, with the spotlight on a series of central bank meetings this week, while the U.K. economy grew in October.

At 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT), the DAX futures contract in Germany traded 0.5% lower, CAC 40 futures in France dropped 0.5% and the FTSE 100 futures contract in the U.K. fell 0.3%.

European equities are set for a weaker start on Monday, following the losses in Asia overnight. U.K. GDP rose 0.5% on the month in October, but this was boosted by an extra working day in the month after September's bank holiday for Queen Elizabeth II's funeral. The Bank of England expects GDP to contract by 0.3% in the final quarter of the year.

U.K. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt stated last month that the U.K. was in recession, while the Bank of England also warned that the country is facing its longest recession since records began.

Despite this gloomy prognosis, the BoE is expected to join the U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Swiss and Norwegian central banks in raising borrowing costs this week.

The Fed starts the ball rolling on Wednesday, and is widely expected to hike by 50 basis points even after U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen forecast a substantial reduction in U.S. inflation in 2023.

The European central banks are all scheduled to pronounce on Thursday, with the ECB and the Bank of England also expected to hike by 50 basis points despite the deteriorating economic outlook.

In corporate news, Roche (SIX:RO) will be in focus after the Swiss drugs giant appointed Thomas Schinecker as the new group chief executive, replacing Severin Schwan who has been nominated to be its next chairman.

Crude oil prices rose Monday as the Keystone pipeline between the U.S. and Canada remained closed, threatening to tighten supply to the largest consumer of crude in the world.

Canada's TC Energy (NYSE:TRP) has yet to determine the cause of the leak to its Keystone oil pipeline, and consequently it has no timeline as to when it would resume distributing 622,000 barrels a day of heavy Canadian crude to refineries in the U.S. Midwest and the Gulf Coast.

By 02:00 ET, U.S. crude futures traded 0.9% higher at $71.68 a barrel, while the Brent contract rose 0.6% to $76.56. 

Both contracts fell last week to their lowest levels since December 2021 on concerns that a possible global recession will hit oil demand.

Additionally, gold futures rose 0.6% to $1,799.60/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% lower at 1.0525.