European Shares Poised For Mixed Opening

European stocks are seen opening narrowly mixed on Tuesday, with concerns over a looming policy tightening cycle and geopolitical tensions likely to be in focus.

After last week’s strong jobs report, market participants are now pricing in more than five quarter-point Federal Reserve interest-rate hikes in 2022.

Traders now look ahead to the release of the U.S. inflation data and the minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s latest monetary policy meeting for more clues about the Fed’s plans for raising interest rates.

Geopolitical tensions continue to simmer, with U.S. President Joe Biden warning that if Russia invades Ukraine, there would be no Nord Stream 2, a natural gas pipeline network that would run under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany.

Amid intense diplomacy over the Ukraine crisis to ease the tension, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said his country and the U.S. are “united” in their approach to Russia.

Asian stocks traded mixed, with Chinese and Hong Kong markets retreating after Alibaba Group Holdings shares tumbled in the U.S. trading overnight.

New-energy vehicle stocks led losses in Shanghai amid the prospect of the U.S. government adding more Chinese entities to the export control list.

A dollar gauge was stable and gold held steady near one-week high, while benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasuries stayed close to their highest levels since December 2019.

Oil slipped from seven-year highs ahead of the resumption of Iran nuclear talks, while Bitcoin rose over 1 percent to trade above $44,000.

U.S. stocks gave up early gains to end mostly lower overnight, as Meta Platforms continued to fall after its bleak forecast last week and due to data privacy issues with the European Union.

The Dow finished marginally higher while the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index shed 0.4 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.

European stocks closed higher on Monday, helped by gains in the mining sector and a slew of positive earnings reports.

The pan European Stoxx 600 gained 0.7 percent. The German DAX added 0.7 percent, while France’s CAC 40 index and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 both surged around 0.8 percent.