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European stocks are likely to open on a sluggish note Wednesday after the much-anticipated showdown between Donald Trump and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris offered little policy details on issues such as immigration, foreign policy and healthcare.<\/p>\n
Asian stocks were lower, with Chinese, Hong Kong and Japanese markets<\/span> leading regional declines as worries persisted about the health of the Chinese economy<\/span> and the yen surged to an eight-month high following hawkish comments from Bank of Japan board member Junko Nakagawa.<\/p>\n The focus now shifts to the U.S. consumer price inflation reading later in the day that could offer fresh insights into the central bank’s interest rate plans. <\/p>\n There is fair amount of uncertainty around the size of the cut at next week’s Federal Reserve meeting. Markets are pricing in one out of three chances of a 50-basis point cut and anticipate 114 bps of easing this year.<\/p>\n The European Central Bank is expected to cut rates again on Thursday in a prelude to the Fed move. <\/p>\n In economic releases, U.K. GDP estimate for July and U.K. Industrial and manufacturing output for July may influence trading sentiment as the day progresses. <\/p>\n The dollar was on the back foot while gold edged up slightly due to risk-off sentiment prevailing in global financial markets.<\/p>\n Oil prices were up about half a percent after falling to their lowest levels in more than a year the previous day on demand concerns.<\/p>\n OPEC on Tuesday cut its forecast for global oil demand growth in 2024 and also trimmed its expectation for next year, marking the producer group’s second consecutive downward revision.<\/p>\n U.S. stocks fluctuated before closing mixed overnight ahead of the Harris-Trump debate and August’s CPI inflation report.<\/p>\n The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 0.8 percent and the S&P 500 added half a percent to score back-to-back gains while the Dow dipped 0.2 percent, pressured by a fall in oil prices to near three-year lows and a slew of cautious comments from American bank executives.<\/p>\n European markets closed lower on Tuesday, dragged down by banks and energy stocks.<\/p>\n The pan European STOXX 600 dipped half a percent. The German DAX lost 1 percent, France’s CAC 40 slid 0.2 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 shed 0.8 percent. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n Business News<\/p>\n<\/div>\n