VIENNA (dpa-AFX) - The European markets may follow Asian stocks lower on Tuesday as investors digest mixed trade data out of China. While exports figures came in better-than-expected, imports fell a more-than-expected 17.7 percent in yuan-denominated terms, underscoring the fragile state of the world's second-largest economy. Asian stocks fell from two-month highs, with Japanese shares leading the region's declines.
The dollar languishes near three-week lows against a basket of currencies after Lael Brainard, a member of the Fed's board of governors, cautioned against a premature decision on interest rates. Speeches by Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard and Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley are scheduled later today.
Crude oil prices edged higher on bargain hunting in Asian deals after tumbling in the previous session on continued worries about economic growth in emerging markets and mixed supply signals in the OPEC report.
Copped edged lower and commodity currencies such as the Australian, New Zealand and Canadian dollars weakened against their major counterparts as a bigger-than-expected fall in Chinese imports added more evidence that the world's second-largest economy is stalling. Gold prices also fell from a three-month high on profit taking.
It is another quiet day on the U.S. economic front, with investors awaiting reports on retail sales, industrial production, and producer and consumer price inflation later in the week for further clues about U.S. growth outlook.
The U.S. earnings season comes into focus this week with major financial giants like JP Morgan (JPM), Bank of America (BAC), Wells Fargo (WFC), Citigroup (C) and Goldman Sachs (GS) due to report their quarterly results.
Closer home, like-for-like sales in the United Kingdom increased 2.6 percent year-over-year in September as a result of improved consumer demand, the British Retail Consortium said. That beat forecasts for an increase of 1.5 percent after a 1.0 percent decline in August.
German CPI and economic sentiment data as well as U.K. inflation and house price figures are slated for release later in the day.
In corporate news, German business software maker SAP AG said that its operating profit for the third quarter, excluding special items, rose 19 percent year-over-year, reflecting double-digit cloud and software revenue growth on strength in mature markets.
British lender Barclays Plc plans to appoint former J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. executive Jes Staley as its new chief executive, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The European markets failed to hold onto last week's strong gains on Monday, although German shares eked out modest gains boosted by a surge in utilities after they passed a nuclear stress test. Glencore shares fell more than 6 percent after the commodities trader and miner said it had kicked off a process to sell two copper mines.
U.S. stocks posted modest gains once again on Monday, though the small gains were enough to lift the Dow and the S&P 500 to their best closing levels in almost two months. While utilities, consumer services and telecom stocks gained ground, material and energy stocks retreated along with the fall in crude oil prices.
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