European Shares Seen Tad Higher Ahead Of US Inflation Update, Fed Minutes

(RTTNews) - European stocks look set to open a tad higher on Wednesday amid bets that cooler inflation will allow the European Central Bank (ECB) to start lowering borrowing costs sooner than the Federal Reserve.

After keeping borrowing costs on hold one last time Thursday, the ECB is expected to lay the ground for three or four rate cuts by the end of the year.

The U.S. interest rate path is highly uncertain, with investors looking out for the U.S. CPI data and the minutes of the Fed's March policy meeting later in the day for direction.

The upcoming U.S. first-quarter earnings season also remains on investors' radar, with Citigroup (C), JPMorgan (JPM) and Wells Fargo scheduled to report their financial results on Friday.

Asian stocks were flat to slightly higher, led by gains in the technology and commodity sectors.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng jumped more than 2 percent after Jack Ma reportedly endorsed Alibaba Group's current leadership in an internal memo.

The dollar was little changed in Asian trading after Fed Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic reiterated his expectation for one rate cut this year, but leaved the door open to change his view, should the economic picture change.

Gold scaled another record high, buoyed by concerns surrounding Russia-Ukraine tensions, instability in the Middle East and support from momentum-following funds.

Oil prices were little changed after a two-day decline as industry data pointed to rising U.S. crude stockpiles.

U.S. stocks saw considerable volatility before closing mixed overnight as investors awaited fresh clues on the path of interest rates.

Rising metals prices and bond yields also fueled inflation worries ahead of key inflation readings and bank earnings.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.3 percent and the S&P 500 edged up 0.1 percent while the Dow finished marginally lower.

European stocks closed lower on Tuesday in the wake of heightened geopolitical tensions and hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials.

The pan European STOXX 600 declined 0.6 percent. The German DAX lost 1.3 percent, France's CAC 40 shed 0.9 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 slipped 0.1 percent.