By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - European stock markets are set to open lower Monday, with investors fretting about the rising number of coronavirus cases and the damage this could do to the economic recovery.
At 2:10 AM ET (0610 GMT), the DAX futures contract in Germany traded 0.5% lower. {{167|France's CACAC 40 futures were down 1.7%, while the FTSE 100 futures contract in the U.K. fell 0.3%.
The World Health Organization reported a record jump in global coronavirus cases on Sunday, with the biggest increase seen in North and South America.
Johns Hopkins University reported over 8.9 million cases globally and over 468,000 deaths as of June 22.
"The potential economic damage of a new round of Covid-19 countermeasures will likely contain any investor enthusiasm," said Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets.
After a brutal sell-off earlier this year, share prices had risen globally over the past three months, helped by massive stimulus around the world and hopes the worst of the pandemic was over.
More stimulus is likely, although the EU leaders failed to agree on a 750 billion euros recovery fund for the coronavirus crisis last week. This was widely expected given several northern European nations had been vocal in their opposition to the plan to pay out the majority of this stimulus in grants instead of loans.
“We still think the frugal four [Sweden, Denmark, Austria and the Netherlands] will eventually bend in compromise, but with some compromises with budget rebates etc,” said analysts at Danske Bank, in a research note released Friday.
Economic indicators are thin on the ground Monday, but a report on consumer confidence in the euro zone will provide a snapshot of how quickly sentiment is recovering as economies gradually reopen.
In corporate news, Wirecard (DE:WDIG) will remain in the spotlight after the board of the scandal-hit payments firm said Monday that the 1.9 billion euros missing from its accounts simply may not exist.
The German company also said it was withdrawing its financial results for 2019 and the first quarter of 2020. It also said it was still in "constructive talks" with its lenders about extending its current debt facility..
Oil prices edged lower Monday, amid concerns that a record rise in global coronavirus cases could curb a recovery in fuel demand.
At 2:10 AM ET, U.S. crude futures traded 0.4% lower at $39.66 a barrel. The international benchmark Brent contract fell 0.2% to $42.12.
Elsewhere, gold futures rose 0.7% to $1,765.05/oz, while EUR/USD traded at 1.1196, up 0.2%.