European stocks stagnate ahead of key Powell speech; earnings also in focus
Investing.com — European stock markets traded in a subdued fashion Wednesday, as investors awaited comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell while digesting more quarterly corporate earnings.
At 03:30 ET (08:30 GMT), the DAX index in Germany traded 0.1% lower, the CAC 40 in France traded largely unchanged, while the FTSE 100 in the U.K. rose 0.1%.
European equities have largely adopted a holding pattern ahead of two days of commentary from Jerome Powell, the head of the U.S. Federal Reserve, starting later in the session.
Global stock markets surged last week, on raised hopes, helped by the soft U.S. jobs data, that U.S. interest rates had peaked.
However, Fed commentary this week has tended to warn against complacency in the fight against inflation. Investors will be looking to Powell for a more concrete steer on where U.S. rates are heading.
Back in Europe, the debate about whether the European Central Bank has another rate hike in it has been informed by the annual rise of German consumer prices coming in at 3.8% in October, dropping from 4.5% the prior month.
Additionally, eurozone retail sales for September are due later in the session, and are expected to have dropped 0.2% on the month, an annual fall of 3.1%.
The ECB broke a streak of ten straight rate hikes last month, fueling market expectations that its next move will be a cut as the eurozone potentially heads towards a recession by the year’s end.
That said, the International Monetary Fund said earlier Wednesday that the ECB should hold its key deposit rate close to its record high 4% level through all of next year to extinguish price pressures.
Turning to the corporate sector, it has been a busy day for quarterly earnings.
Credit Agricole (OTC:CRARY) stock rose
Read more on investing.com
