European stocks stagnate ahead of key Powell speech; earnings also in focus

Investing.com - European stock markets traded in a subdued fashion Wednesday, as investors awaited comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell while digesting more quarterly corporate earnings.

At 03:30 ET (08:30 GMT), the DAX index in Germany traded 0.1% lower, the CAC 40 in France traded largely unchanged, while the FTSE 100 in the U.K. rose 0.1%.

Fed’s Powell in spotlight

European equities have largely adopted a holding pattern ahead of two days of commentary from Jerome Powell, the head of the U.S. Federal Reserve, starting later in the session.

Global stock markets surged last week, on raised hopes, helped by the soft U.S. jobs data, that U.S. interest rates had peaked.

However, Fed commentary this week has tended to warn against complacency in the fight against inflation. Investors will be looking to Powell for a more concrete steer on where U.S. rates are heading.

ECB needs to keeps rates high - IMF

Back in Europe, the debate about whether the European Central Bank has another rate hike in it has been informed by the annual rise of German consumer prices coming in at 3.8% in October, dropping from 4.5% the prior month. 

Additionally, eurozone retail sales for September are due later in the session, and are expected to have dropped 0.2% on the month, an annual fall of 3.1%. 

The ECB broke a streak of ten straight rate hikes last month, fueling market expectations that its next move will be a cut as the eurozone potentially heads towards a recession by the year’s end.

That said, the International Monetary Fund said earlier Wednesday that the ECB should hold its key deposit rate close to its record high 4% level through all of next year to extinguish price pressures.

Earnings season continues apace

Turning to the corporate sector, it has been a busy day for quarterly earnings.

Credit Agricole (OTC:CRARY) stock rose 0.5% after France's second-largest listed bank posted better-than-expected quarterly results, driven by a strong performance of its investment bank and retail activities.

Commerzbank (ETR:CBKG) stock surged 5% after the German lender's net profit more than tripled in the third quarter, helped by higher interest rates.

ABN Amro (AS:ABNd) stock slumped over 7% after the Dutch lender reported that its net interest income, a widely watched metric, was 5% lower than in the second quarter and 6% below expectations, even as it posted better-than-expected net profit for the third quarter.

Continental (ETR:CONG) stock rose 2.2% after the German tire manufacturer reported a healthy rise in its adjusted operating result and slightly raised its outlook for the tires business off the back of a strong quarter.

Marks and Spencer (LON:MKS) stock soared over 9% after the British food and clothing retailer restored a dividend and reported better-than-expected half-year profits.

Elsewhere, Bayer (ETR:BAYGN) stock fell 0.4% after the German conglomerate announced it was considering spinning off its Consumer Health or Crop Science divisions.

Crude lower after U.S. inventories surge

Oil prices stabilised Wednesday near three-month lows, after a surprise surge in U.S. crude inventories raised concerns about slowing demand at the world’s largest consumer.

Data from the American Petroleum Institute, an industry body, showed that U.S. crude inventories surged almost 12 million barrels last week, much more than expectations for a draw of 300,000 barrels.

The official weekly data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration has been delayed until the week of Nov. 13.

By 03:30 ET, the U.S. crude futures traded 0.1% lower at $77.34 a barrel, while the Brent contract climbed 0.1% to $81.72 a barrel. Both declined to the lowest levels since July 24 on Tuesday.

Additionally, gold futures traded largely flat at $1,974.10/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.2% lower at 1.0676.