European Shares Set To Decline On Rate Anxiety

(RTTNews) - European stocks may decline at open on Friday after a trio of Fed policymakers cooled hopes of immediate rate cuts.

Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin said that officials can afford to take time to when considering interest rate decreases and "no one wants inflation to reemerge."

Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said that he has penciled two rate cuts this year, but none may be required if inflation continues to stall.

Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee said the persistence of outsized price increases in the housing services sector poses the biggest danger to the inflation picture.

Trading later in the day may be driven by reaction to the monthly U.S. jobs report and its potential impact on the outlook for interest rates.

Economists currently expected employment to jump by 200,000 jobs in March after an increase of 275,000 jobs in February. The unemployment rate is expected to hold at 3.9 percent.

Closer home, factory orders data and construction Purchasing Managers' survey results from Germany and house price figures from the U.K. are awaited later in the day. Asian markets fell broadly after the S&P 500 posted its biggest daily percentage drop since Feb. 13 overnight on concerns about the outlook for interest-rate cuts.

Japan's Nikkei was down more than 2 percent as the yen climbed to the 150 range versus the dollar, its highest point in about two weeks.

The U.S. dollar held steady against peer currencies after rebounding from a two-week low.

The price of oil breached $90 for the first time since October amid escalating geopolitical tensions.

The dollar held steady against peer currencies after hitting a two-week low the previous day.

Gold dropped from record highs ahead of key U.S. nonfarm payrolls data due later in the day and the CPI and PPI reports for March on tap next week.

U.S. stocks ended sharply lower overnight after a late-day sell-off amid concerns that higher energy prices will keep inflation elevated and could force the Fed to delay its first cut to interest rates.

Investors also reacted to hawkish comments from Fed officials and data showing a rise in weekly jobless claims to a two-month high last week.

The Dow and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite both slumped around 1.4 percent while the S&P 500 shed 1.2 percent.

European stocks rose on Thursday after the release of Eurozone private sector and producer price inflation data and minutes of ECB's most recent policy meeting.

The pan European STOXX 600 gained 0.2 percent. The German DAX inched up 0.2 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 added half a percent while France's CAC 40 finished marginally lower.