European stocks may open a tad higher on Wednesday after Alphabet Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Texas Instruments Inc. all posted double-digit quarterly revenue growth, helping ease investor concerns about the gloomy economic outlook.
Closer home, Credit Suisse Group AG posted its third straight quarterly loss, while Deutsche Bank posted a better-than-expected 51 percent rise in second-quarter profit and BASF lifted its guidance for full-year revenues.
Ahead of the Fed’s interest-rate decision later in the day and Thursday’s GDP data, U.S. President Joe Biden of United States said he does not expect the U.S. will suffer an economic downturn.
The Fed is widely expected to announce another 75-basis point rate hike as part of its efforts to combat elevated inflation.
Market participants will scrutinize the accompanying statement for clues about future rate hikes.
Reports on durable goods orders and pending home sales along with Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference may attract greater attention than the Fed’s rate decision.
Asian markets traded mixed and gold prices were subdued, while oil prices held steady after settling lower on Tuesday on news the Biden administration will sell an additional 20 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
U.S. stocks fell sharply overnight after downbeat earnings news from Walmart and General Motors.
A measure of consumer confidence dropped to nearly a 1-1/2-year low in July and new home sales tumbled to their lowest level in just over two years in June, raising the odds of a recession.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 1.9 percent, the S&P 500 shed 1.2 percent and the Dow dipped 0.7 percent.
European stocks ended mostly lower on Tuesday after the IMF slashed its global growth forecasts and raised its projections for inflation.
EU energy ministers agreed a plan to cut gas use across the bloc as Moscow further cuts its energy supplies to the European Union.
The pan European Stoxx 600 finished marginally lower. The German DAX fell 0.9 percent, France’s CAC 40 index gave up 0.4 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 ended flat with a negative bias.
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