European Stocks Set to Open Lower

European stock markets set to open lower on Wednesday with doubts over the timing of stimulus in the United States while eyes in Europe over reports from Deutsche Bank, Barclays and Santander in the banking sector.

At 06:05 GMT, the German DAX futures were trading lower 0.1%, the French CAC 40 fell 0.1% and the FTSE 100 was down by the same percentage.

The Fed’s decisions and press conference at 18:00 GMT in focus today and it is not expected that the Federal Reserve will change interest rates or bond purchase policy but had extended most of the emergency lending facilities for three months. Some speculated that Jerome Powell might indicate further easing of monetary policy during the press conference. In Europe, the focus is on bank earnings reports.

Deutsche Bank recorded a loss in the Q2 despite a strong performance in the investment bank, put aside 761 million euros to cover credit losses, while Santander reported a decrease of 12.6 billion euros to indicate a large unexpected loss, while Barclays allocated 1.6 billion pounds.