By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - European stock markets are expected to open higher Tuesday, bouncing after recent losses but worries over a fragile global economic recovery remain high.
At 2 AM ET (0600 GMT), the DAX futures contract in Germany traded 1% higher, CAC 40 futures in France climbed 0.8%, and the FTSE 100 futures contract in the U.K. rose 0.5%.
European equities have weakened over the last month, with the DAX down 1.4%, the CAC 40 down 3.7%, and the FTSE 100 down 2%, on concerns that higher interest rates to combat inflation, COVID lockdowns in China and the war on Ukraine will stunt the global economic recovery.
Further evidence of this slowdown emerged Monday with weak retail sales and factory production figures in China while the New York Fed's Empire State manufacturing index showed an abrupt fall during May.
Back in Europe, the French unemployment rate fell to the lowest rate in 14 years in the first quarter, official data showed on Tuesday, but this represented a small drop to 7.3% while the U.K. claimant count fell around 57,000 in April, with the unemployment rate dropping to 3.7%.
Later in the session, the second estimate of Eurozone gross domestic product for the first quarter is expected to show modest 0.2% growth on the quarter, up 5.0% on the year.
The war in Ukraine remains a key focus for Investors, with Kyiv stating on Monday that its troops defending the country's second-largest city, Kharkiv, had repelled Russian forces and advanced as far as the border with Russia.
Additionally, Finland and Sweden are set to deliver their formal applications at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels this week.
In the corporate sector, Daimler Truck (ETR:DTGGe) will be in the spotlight after the German commercial vehicle manufacturer increased its forecast for 2022 revenues, with strong customer demand enabling it to push up prices.
ABB (SIX:ABBN) will also be in focus after the Swiss engineering company announced plans to increase sales at its motion business ahead of its investor day for the division.
Oil prices stabilized Tuesday after the European Union failed to unanimously agree on an import ban on Russian crude, a move which would further tighten global supply.
EU foreign ministers failed in their attempts on Monday to get Hungary to lift its veto of the bloc’s proposed oil embargo on Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine. The proposal will now require more negotiations, bringing its actual implementation into doubt.
Investors now await U.S. crude oil supply data from the American Petroleum Institute, due later in the day.
By 2 AM ET, U.S. crude futures traded flat at $111.82 a barrel, while the Brent contract was largely unchanged at $114.25. Both benchmarks gained more than 2% on Monday, adding to Friday’s 4% increase.
Additionally, gold futures rose 0.7% to $1,827.36/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.2% higher at 1.0455.