Title: European Stock Futures Higher; ECB Meeting, U.S. CPI in Focus
Jun 06, 2022 02:02AM ET
By: AnalysisWatch
European stock markets are expected to open higher on Monday as investors prepare for an important week when the European Central Bank meets to discuss policy normalisation and the latest US inflation data is released.
At 2am ET (0600 GMT), the DAX futures contract in Germany was trading 0.3% higher, the CAC 40 futures in France was up 0.5% and the FTSE 100 futures contract in the UK was up 0.7%.
European equities ended last week on a negative note, although trading volumes were low as the UK was on holiday as data showed the US economy added 390,000 jobs in May. This was more than expected and caused investors to reconsider the potential for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in the coming months.
With this in mind, investors are eagerly awaiting Friday's US CPI report for May as it will be a key factor before the Fed decides how much to raise rates next week.
Core inflation, which excludes volatile energy and fuel prices, is expected to be 5.9% year-on-year, marking the third consecutive month of decline and suggesting core inflation may have peaked.
Prior to that, the European Central Bank will meet on Thursday and is expected to use the meeting to signal that a rate hike will take place in the third quarter.
In corporate news, easyJet (LON:EZJ) is likely to be in the spotlight after the budget carrier cancelled 80 flights on Sunday due to a difficult operating environment.
Earlier in May, the airline cancelled more than 200 flights due to airport delays and other restrictions affecting travel during the school holidays.
Oil rose on Monday after Saudi Arabia substantially raised the price of its crude sold to Asian buyers in July, signalling that the world's main oil exporter expects strong demand over the summer while supply remains very tight.
By 2:05am ET, US crude futures were trading 0.4% higher at $119.38 a barrel, after earlier hitting a three-month high, while the Brent contract rose 0.5% to $120.28.
Gold futures were also up 0.4% to $1,857.10 an ounce and EUR/USD was trading 0.1% higher at 1.0724.