By Peter Nurse
Investing.com -- European stock markets are expected to open in a mixed fashion Tuesday, with investors balancing strong corporate banking results with concerns about a further Chinese regulatory clampdown.
At 2 AM ET (0600 GMT), the DAX futures contract in Germany traded 0.4% higher, CAC 40 futures in France climbed 0.1%, while the FTSE 100 futures contract in the U.K. fell 0.1%.
Helping sentiment in the European equity markets Tuesday were some strong results in the banking sector.
French bank Societe Generale (OTC:SCGLY), the country’s third-largest lender, raised its forecast for the full year after it swung back to a profit in the second quarter, helped by a rebound in its French retail banking business.
Additionally, Standard Chartered (OTC:SCBFF) posted a better-than-expected 57% jump in its first-half pretax profit while also announcing a $250 million share buyback and resumed interim dividend payments, as it benefited from an economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
Elsewhere, BMW (DE:BMWG) posted a better-than-expected second-quarter net profit versus a loss in the same period in 2020 when the German luxury carmaker was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
Sanofi (PA:SASY) (NASDAQ:SNY) will also be in the spotlight after the French drugmaker confirmed it had made a $3.2 billion offer to buy U.S. biotech company Translate Bio (NASDAQ:TBIO).
In Asia earlier Tuesday, the stock of gaming and social media giant Tencent (HK:0700) Holdings (OTC:TCEHY) slumped as much as 10% as investors fretted that Chinese authorities could now turn their regulatory focus on the gaming sector in wake of Beijing’s recent clampdown on the education and ride-hailing sectors.
This follows an article in the Chinese state media branding online gaming a type of “opium”, while calling for restrictions on the industry in order to prevent addiction, particularly in younger people.
In economic news, the main focus will be on the June Eurozone PPI release, with the annual figure expected to rise further from the 9.6% level seen in May.
Elsewhere, oil prices edged lower as concerns over slowing factory activity in both the U.S. and China, the two biggest consumers of crude in the world, coupled with mounting Covid worries weighed on sentiment.
Of interest later in the session will be the latest forecasts of U.S. crude and product inventories for last week from the American Petroleum Institute.
At 2 AM ET, U.S. crude futures traded 0.1% lower at $71.22 a barrel, while the Brent contract fell 0.1% to $72.83.
Additionally, gold futures fell 0.5% to $1,813.80/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% higher at 1.18752037.