European Shares Set For Cautious Start Before Nvidia Earnings

(RTTNews) - European stocks look set to open broadly lower on Wednesday as investors await Nvidia Corp.'s earnings due later in the day and digest the impact of fresh measures announced by Chinese policymakers to revive investor confidence.

U.S. chipmaker Nvidia is set to report its fourth-quarter earnings after the closing bell later today. The highly anticipated report will shed light on the booming AI business in the tech space.

Asian markets traded mixed, with benchmark indexes in China and Hong Kong rallying 2-3 percent, as authorities clamped down on trading by quant funds as part of efforts to end an equity market rout.

In another significant development, China's housing authority said that banks have approved 123.6 billion yuan ($17 billion) of loans for property projects under the so-called "whitelist" mechanism launched on January 26.

Bond yields declined and the dollar fell from recent highs ahead of the minutes of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting later in the day that might offer additional clues on when the U.S. central bank will start to cut interest rates.

Also, Fed officials Raphael Bostic and Michelle Bowman are set to speak later in the day.

Gold hovered near one-week high. Oil edged up slightly after settling lower on Tuesday, reflecting lingering concerns about the outlook for demand.

U.S. stocks ended lower overnight as hopes for early rate cuts faded and investors awaited cues from AI-darling Nvidia's earnings results.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed 0.9 percent, the S&P 500 dropped 0.6 percent and the Dow eased 0.2 percent.

European stocks ended mixed on Tuesday amid much uncertainty about the timing of interest rate cuts. The pan-European STOX 600 edged down 0.1 percent.

The German DAX and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 both slipped around 0.1 percent while France's CAC 40 rose 0.3 percent.