By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - European stock markets are seen opening a little weaker Thursday, retracing after sharp gains Wednesday, with investors fretting over the pace of the economic recovery in the region.
At 2:10 AM ET (0610 GMT), the DAX futures contract in Germany traded 0.2% lower, the FTSE 100 futures contract in the U.K. fell 0.9%, while CAC 40 futures in France dropped 0.3%.
On Wednesday, the DAX and the CAC 40 both closed nearly 1% higher, while the FTSE 100 posted a gain of over 2%.
German prices data, released earlier Thursday, showed deflationary pressures in Europe’s largest economy, with the July CPI figure coming in at -0.5% on the month and -0.1% on the year.
This contrasted with signs in the U.S. Wednesday of the pace of inflation gathering speed, pointing to economic recovery.
"The 0.6% month-on-month increase in July core CPI was jaw dropping," Jefferies (NYSE:JEF) said in a note. "It was the largest sequential jump since January 1991. While this momentum in pricing is unlikely to be sustained, the strength was broad-based and cannot be ignored."
In more positive news, the French unemployment rate fell to 7.1% in the second quarter, from 7.8% the previous quarter, much better than the jump to 8.3% expected.
More ominously, there is still no sign of a breakthrough in the stalemate in talks over the next U.S. stimulus package.
In corporate news, Thyssenkrupp (DE:TKAG) said a stabilization of some of its businesses helped it to keep the adjusted operating loss in its fiscal third-quarter to 679 million euros ($800 million), having said in May the loss may be as high as 1 billion.
Oil prices edged lower Thursday, consolidating after gains the previous session on the back of U.S. government data showing a fall in inventories, giving weight to the view that fuel demand is returning despite the coronavirus pandemic.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said Wednesday crude stocks fell by 4.512 million barrels last week, against the 2.875 million-barrel draw in predictions prepared by Investing.com.
U.S. crude futures traded 0.4% lower at $42.50 a barrel, while the international benchmark Brent contract fell 0.4% to $45.23.
Elsewhere, gold futures fell 0.4% to $1,940.55/oz, settling into a lower range registering all-time highs above $2,000. EUR/USD traded 0.4% higher at 1.1823.