Investing.com - European stock markets are expected to open largely unchanged Tuesday, with investors looking forward to more corporate earnings while worries over the Chinese economic recovery continue to linger.
At 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT), the DAX futures contract in Germany traded flat, CAC 40 futures in France climbed 0.1% and the FTSE 100 futures contract in the U.K. fell 0.1%.
The main European stock indices edged lower Monday after unimpressive growth data from China, the world’s second-largest economy and a major export market for Europe’s largest companies, raised concerns about the sustainability of its post-COVID-19 recovery.
Chinese worries remain
With little in the way of economic data due in Europe Tuesday, these worries are likely to continue, given consumer, technology, industrial and materials sectors all have significant exposure to China.
The luxury sector is also likely to be in the spotlight after shares of the world's second-biggest luxury firm, Richemont (SIX:CFR), dropped over 10% on Monday, the sharpest one-day percentage fall in over a year, after additional weakness in the Americas weighed on first-quarter organic sales growth.
Quarterly earnings continue
Novartis (SIX:NOVN) raised its full-year earnings guidance earlier Tuesday, with the Swiss drugmaker citing strong drug sales as it laid out plans for the spin-off of its generic medicines division Sandoz for early in the fourth quarter.
Swedbank (ST:SWEDa) announced a more than doubling of its net profit in the second quarter as the Swedish lender benefited from higher interest income as rates increased.
That said, most of Tuesday’s attention will be on earnings across the pond with results expected from the likes of lenders Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) and Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW), as well as toy maker Hasbro (NASDAQ:HAS) and aerospace company Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT).
Oil prices rebound ahead of U.S. inventories
Crude prices edged higher Tuesday, rebounding after recent losses, with the focus turning to a possible tightening of U.S. crude supplies.
Investors were now awaiting more signals from weekly U.S. inventory data, due from the American Petroleum Institute, later in the session, and then the Energy Information Administration on Wednesday. The data is expected to show a decline in stockpiles after a substantially bigger-than-expected build in the prior week.
However, Monday’s disappointing Chinese growth numbers are likely to keep a lid on price gains, with traders looking for more stimulus measures from Beijing, as the government moves to shore up economic growth.
By 02:00 ET, the U.S. crude futures traded 0.3% higher at $74.27 a barrel, while the Brent contract climbed 0.1% to $78.57.
Additionally, gold futures rose 0.3% to $1,962.75/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% higher at 1.1250.