By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - European stock markets are seen opening a little lower Tuesday, as investors digest another leg down for tech stocks and disappointing Japanese growth, even after further progress in the U.S. stimulus package.
At 2:05 AM ET (0705 GMT), the DAX futures contract in Germany traded 0.1% lower, CAC 40 futures in France dropped 0.1% and the FTSE 100 futures contract in the U.K. fell 0.4%.
The Biden’s administration’s $1.9 trillion Covid relief is set to be taken up by the House of Representatives by “Wednesday morning at the latest,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday.
This follows the Senate passing the package on Saturday. Once the bill is passed by the House of Representatives, it will then make its way to President Joe Biden to be signed into law.
Equity markets have been boosted of late by the expectation that loose fiscal and monetary policy would power an economic recovery. This was emphasized by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who said on Monday that the deal would provide enough resources to fuel a “very strong” U.S. improvement.
However, the news out of Japan earlier Tuesday disappointed, as the country's economy expanded at a slower-than-initially-reported pace in October-December, growing 2.8% on the quarter, versus a preliminary 3.0% gain.
Back in Europe, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said Monday that risks to the U.K. economy remain tilted to the downside.
This brings the revised fourth-quarter euro-zone GDP growth figures, due later in the session, into focus, with the region hard hit by Covid-related restrictions during that period.
In corporate news, Vivendi (OTC:VIVHY) will be in the spotlight as a group of investors takes a claim for 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) in damages to a French court, alleging the media giant made false financial statements during a merger deal two decades ago.
Earnings also come from the likes of Deutsche Post (OTC:DPSGY), Continental (DE:CONG), Standard Life (LON:SLA), ITV (LON:ITV) and Domino’s Pizza Group (LON:DOM).
Oil prices drifted lower Tuesday, with a generally stronger dollar. Fears of supply disruption from Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest exporter, have faded after a combined drone and missile attack on some of its facilities by Yemen-based forces on Monday.
Brent had spiked above $70 a barrel after the attack. However, there was limited impact and prices ended the day lower.
Attention will now turn to the release of U.S. crude oil supply data from the American Petroleum Institute, due later in the day.
U.S. crude futures traded 0.7% lower at $64.62 a barrel, while the international benchmark Brent contract fell 0.4% to $67.96.
Elsewhere, gold futures rose 0.7% to $1,689.35/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% higher at 1.1857.