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Investing.com – European stock markets are expected to open marginally lower Tuesday, continuing to feel the backlash of China’s regulatory crackdown ahead of the start of a Federal Reserve meeting and major tech earnings.
At 2:05 AM ET (0605 GMT), the DAX futures contract in Germany traded 0.3% lower, CAC 40 futures in France dropped 0.1% and the FTSE 100 futures contract in the U.K. fell 0.2%.
European equities are set to receive a largely negative handover from Asia, where several major Chinese tech stocks, listed in Hong Kong, stayed under pressure for the third day on the back of regulatory fears surrounding China’s wider technology sector.
Additionally, profit growth at China’s industrial firms slowed for the fourth straight month in June, rising 20% compared with 36.4% growth in May, as high raw material prices weighed on factories’ margins.
However, losses are likely to be limited with investors studying strong second-quarter results from U.S. electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) ahead of results from the big tech giants Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) later Tuesday. These companies have been behind a lot of the gains the major U.S. indices have registered for much of the last year.
Also of interest will be the start of the latest Federal Reserve two-day policy meeting, which could see the U.S. central bank providing more information over the strength of the U.S. economy as well as its thinking over when it will start to scaling back its hefty asset-purchasing program.
Back in Europe, Credit Suisse (SIX:CSGN) has appointed former Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) employee David Wildermuth as its new chief risk officer in the wake of the Archegos and Greensill scandals.
In the U.K., the day’s big earnings release was Reckitt Benckiser (LON:RKT), which reported a hefty net loss as it sold its IFCN business in China. The company also warned of rising cost pressures but upheld its full-year target for revenue growth.
The economic data slate is largely empty in Europe Tuesday, with the day’s major release being the U.S. durable goods number for June, which should confirm the country’s growing recovery.
Elsewhere, oil prices rose Tuesday, rebounding after Monday’s losses with investors remaining confident over the prospects for global demand recovery even as some countries tighten restrictions amid a Covid-19 resurgence.
Investors now await U.S. crude oil supply data from the American Petroleum Institute, due later in the day.
At 2:05 AM ET, U.S. crude futures traded 0.4% higher at $72.16 a barrel, while the Brent contract rose 0.4% to $73.96.
Additionally, gold futures fell 0.2% to $1,795.75/oz, while EUR/USD traded largely flat at 1.1797.
