Mar 23, 2022 03:03AM ET
By: AnalysisWatch
European stock markets are expected to open higher on Wednesday, following the global trend, as investors look to recover from recent losses caused by the Ukraine war and related inflation concerns.
At 3:05 a.m. ET, the DAX futures in Germany were 0.4% higher, the CAC 40 futures in France were 0.4% higher, and the FTSE 100 futures in the United Kingdom were 0.6% higher.
Major indices closed higher on Wall Street late on Tuesday, led by a 2% rise in the NASDAQ Composite, and Asian stocks followed suit overnight, with Japan's Nikkei rising 2.5% to hit a two-month high.
European indices look set to continue their rally as cash returns from bond markets to battered equity markets as investors brace for central banks, particularly the US Federal Reserve, to take aggressive action to curb inflation.
Still, those gains remain tentative as the war in Ukraine continues and Russian airstrikes continue to hit the besieged port city of Mariupol in the south of the country.
Talks between Ukraine and Russia, while confrontational, are moving forward, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday ahead of US President Joe Biden's arrival in Brussels for talks with NATO and European leaders that begin later in the day.
Biden is expected to bring plans for further sanctions against Moscow in retaliation for Russia's invasion of Ukraine and to toughen existing measures.
Elsewhere, UK consumer prices rose 0.8% month-on-month and 6.2% year-on-year in February, the fastest rate in 30 years. This will further increase pressure on Chancellor Rishi Sunak to help citizens suffering from a cost of living crisis in his Spring Statement to Parliament.
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