European stock futures steady; Spanish inflation to provide ECB clues

Investing.com – European stock markets are expected to open in a steady fashion Tuesday, with investors digesting U.K. jobs and Spanish inflation data ahead of the latest policy-setting meeting by the European Central Bank later in the week.

At 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT), the contract in Germany traded 0.1% higher, in France climbed 0.2% and the contract in the U.K. traded largely unchanged. 

U.K. wage pressures remain severe

Data released earlier Tuesday showed that the U.K. rose to 4.3% in July, from 4.2% the previous month, while the August rose just 900 in August.

However, despite these signs of a weakening of the U.K. labor market, still rose 7.8%, suggesting the still has to contend with wage-based inflationary pressures when it meets next week.

BOE policymaker Catherine Mann warned late Monday that it’s too soon to stop raising rates, and the central bank is widely expected to hike by another 24 basis points.

Spanish inflation seen rising in August

Ahead of the BOE, the meets later this week amid a great deal of uncertainty over the outcome as price pressures remain elevated while data shows economic activity is now slowing sharply.

The latest data is due later Tuesday, and is expected to show an uptick in consumer prices in August. The monthly CPI release is expected to come in at 0.5%, up from 0.2% in July, while the annual figure is seen at 2.6%, up from 2.3%. 

The ECB has raised rates at each of its past nine meetings and policymakers are now debating whether to raise the deposit rate again, to 4%, or pause.

U.S. inflation data also in spotlight

There’s also inflation data due this week in the U.S., with Wednesday seeing the release of the August consumer price index.

The is widely expected to forgo a hike again next week, but policymakers will be keen to see that inflation is playing ball, with expected to fall to 4.3% growth on an annual basis.

Crude continues to firm ahead of OPEC report

Oil prices rose Tuesday, maintaining the positive tone generated by Saudi Arabia and Russia extending their voluntary supply cuts to the end of the year ahead of the release of the monthly OPEC report.

Traders are keenly awaiting a monthly report from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, due later in the day, especially for forecasts of Chinese demand, amid dwindling bets that the country will drive oil demand to record highs this year. 

Industry data on stocks from the are due later in the session, and are expected to continue the recent run of draws.

By 02:00 ET, the U.S. crude futures traded 0.4% higher at $87.61 a barrel, while the contract climbed 0.3% to $90.88, continuing to trade above $90 a barrel after reaching this level last week for the first time in 10 months.

Additionally, fell 0.2% to $1,942.45/oz, while traded 0.1% lower at 1.0737.