European Shares Seen Tad Lower At Open

European stocks look set to open on a cautious note Monday as investors fret about increased economic risks.

Asian markets traded mostly lower as China locked down one of districts near iPhone manufacturing hub of Zhengzhou and President Xi Jinping dashed any hopes that the stringent “zero Covid” measures – which were holding back economic growth and frustrating residents – would end in the coming months.

The dollar eased against its Group-of-10 counterparts, while benchmark U.S. 10-year bond yield rose above 4 percent for the first time since 2008 ahead of U.S. industrial production, manufacturing, housing starts and existing home sales data due this week, which will provide fresh insights on the health of the world’s largest economy.

A slew of Fed officials including Neel Kashkari, Charles Evans and James Bullard will give speeches this week.

On Saturday, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard left open the possibility that the central bank would raise interest rates by 75 points at the upcoming meetings in November and December, adding that it was too soon to make a call.

Elsewhere, a slew of Chinese data including reports on GDP, industrial production and retail sales for September will also be of interest to the markets.

U.S. stocks slumped Friday and bond yields spiked after a closely watched survey showed inflation expectations were increasing, adding to worries around the Fed’s policy tightening.

Investors also reacted to a mixed bag of earnings results from large banks and the unchanged reading in retail sales last month.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 3.1 percent to hit its lowest closing level in over two years while the Dow gave up 1.3 percent and the S&P 500 shed 2.4 percent.

European stocks closed higher on Friday after the British government announced a U-turn on certain elements of its controversial fiscal policies.

The pan European Stoxx 600 gained 0.6 percent. The German DAX rose 0.7 percent, France’s CAC 40 index added 0.9 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 inched up 0.1 percent.

Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Johnson & Johnson, Netflix, Procter & Gamble, IBM Corp., Tesla, AT&T and American Express are among the prominent U.S. companies due to report their quarterly results this week.

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