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At 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT), the DAX futures contract in Germany traded 0.1% higher, CAC 40 futures in France climbed 0.1% and the FTSE 100 futures contract in the U.K. rose 0.1%.
The looming U.S. debt ceiling deadline and the potential for a catastrophic U.S. debt default has created a degree of nervousness throughout the global markets, and investors in Europe are no exception.
Talks between U.S. President Joe Biden and Republican Kevin McCarthy, the speaker of the House of Representatives, failed to come up with a deal on Tuesday, but an agreement still appears to be a possibility.
“It is possible to get a deal by the end of the week. It’s not that difficult to get to an agreement,” said McCarthy, while the White House described the talks as “productive and direct.”
Back in Europe, the session’s main economic data will be the final eurozone consumer inflation figures for April, which are expected to show that prices remained elevated.
In the corporate sector, the focus will also be on UBS (SIX:UBSG) after the Swiss bank flagged a financial hit of about $17 billion from the takeover of Credit Suisse.
Commerzbank (ETR:CBKG) reported that its net profit nearly doubled in the first quarter, a better-than-expected result helped by higher interest rates.
Elsewhere, Siemens (ETR:SIEGn) raised its full-year sales and profit guidance after the German engineering and technology group beat sales forecasts during its second quarter.
Oil prices retreated Wednesday after a surprise rise in U.S. crude stockpiles raised demand concerns at the world’s largest consumer.
U.S. crude inventories rose by around 3.6 million barrels in the week ended May 12, according to data from the industry body American Petroleum Institute, instead of the expected drawdown.
However, these losses have been limited as releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve have to be factored into the inventory build, while the drop in gasoline and distillates inventories pointed to improving demand ahead of the summer season.
Official U.S. government data on crude and product stockpiles from the Energy Information Administration are due later in the session.
By 02:00 ET, U.S. crude futures traded 0.9% lower at $70.20 a barrel, while the Brent contract dropped 0.8% to $74.29.
Additionally, gold futures fell 0.1% to $1,991.65/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% lower at 1.0850.
