European Stock Futures Lower; Fed Minutes Seen Key
By Administrator_ India
European stock markets are seen opening sharply lower Wednesday, following the late selloff on Wall Street overnight amid uncertainties over inflation and future Federal Reserve policy.
At 2:05 AM ET (0705 GMT), the DAX futures contract in Germany traded 0.2% lower, CAC 40 futures in France dropped 1.2% and the FTSE 100 futures contract in the U.K. fell 0.9%.
The major indices on Wall Street failed to hold onto early gains on the back of strong retail earnings Tuesday, suffering a sharp selloff into the close. All the major tech stocks ended in the red as investors feared holding these growth companies into the release of the minutes of the last Federal Reserve meeting.
Stocks have been pressured of late on concerns that growing inflationary pressures could force the U.S. central bank to rein in its ultra-easy monetary policies.
With this in mind, investors will study the minutes of the April Fed meeting, when they are released later Wednesday, for clues of when the central bank could consider cutting back its bond purchases, a move likely to precede increases in interest rates.
Ahead of that, U.K. consumer prices rose 0.6% on the month in April and 1.5% in the year, a sharp rise from the 0.3% and 0.7% respective figures saw the previous month.
Incorporate news, Julius Baer will be in focus after the Swiss wealth manager said it was on track to deliver on financial targets as it posted an 8% rise in assets under management for the first four months of 2021.
