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Investing.com – European stock markets are expected to open lower Monday, after a negative lead from Asia that reflected dismay at China’s latest move against technology companies.
At 2:05 AM ET (0605 GMT), the DAX futures contract in Germany traded 0.4% lower, CAC 40 futures in France dropped 0.4% and the FTSE 100 futures contract in the U.K. fell 0.4%.
European markets have had a negative handover from Asia Monday after the Chinese government continued its regulatory clampdown, releasing plans over the weekend to reform the $100 billion education sector, one of the country’s most desired investment plays in recent years.
Attention for much of this week is likely to turn further west, with the Federal Reserve, set to hold a two-day policy meeting, concluding on Wednesday, which could see the U.S. central bank announcing when it plans to start scaling back its hefty asset-purchasing program.
Additionally, this week is scheduled to be one of the busiest for earnings reports, with Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) due after the close Monday, and then the big tech giants Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) on Tuesday, while Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) report later in the week.
Back in Europe, Ryanair (LON:RYA) will be in the spotlight after Europe’s largest low-cost carrier raised its forecast for full-year traffic on strong summer bookings as it reported a smaller first-quarter net loss than expected. That comes against a backdrop of data that suggest the latest wave of Covid-19 cases was close to peaking in the U.K. before it lifted restrictions on social distancing last week. The seven-day average for case numbers has fallen over 20% in the last week.
Dutch health technology company Koninklijke Philips (AS:PHG) also beat second-quarter earnings expectations as the pandemic continued to spur demand for hospital equipment, while French luxury goods giant LVMH (PA:LVMH) is also scheduled to offer up numbers later.
Bloomberg reported that Swedish-Swiss electrical equipment company ABB (SIX:ABBN) is in advanced talks to sell its mechanical power transmission business, known as Dodge, to RBC Bearings (NASDAQ:ROLL) for between $2.5 billion and $3 billion.
The economic data slate is quiet Monday, with the German Ifo business climate index for July the main release. It’s expected to show a small improvement, although the expectations component is likely to slip as Covid cases rise.
Elsewhere, oil prices weakened Monday after eking out a small gain over the course of last week as investors assessed the outlook for demand amid a Covid-19 resurgence across much of the globe.
At 2:05 AM ET, U.S. crude futures traded 1.2% lower at $71.28 a barrel, while the Brent contract fell 1.1% to $72.60.
Additionally, gold futures rose 0.3% to $1,807.60/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% higher at 1.1779.
