European stocks are set to open down on Tuesday after a weak close on Wall Street amid growing investor nervousness about the outlook for company profits, especially in the tech sector, and as oil traded at $48.60 barrel.
Shares on both Wall Street and in Tokyo closed at their weakest level so far this year as investors delve deeper into the quarterly reporting season. A weak start to the year historically heralds a poor full-year performance.
Heading Europe's corporate agenda is a trading statement from Aviva and fourth-quarter sales from the world's No.3 drugs maker Sanofi-Avensys.
U.S. earnings continue apace with heavyweights such as Merck & Co and Merrill Lynch due to report during the day and chipmaker Texas Instruments due to report after-hours.
A key couple of weeks loom too for foreign exchange and bond markets, with a U.S. interest rate decision and a G7 gathering both on next week's agenda.
*MARKETS
* Spread betters in London are calling the FTSE 100 , CAC-40 , and DAX indexes flat to 14 points lower.
* The FTSEurofirst 300 index of leading European shares closed broadly flat at 1,047.6 points as a late rally driven by miners and oil stocks helped offset more disappointing updates from the technology sector. Double click here [ID:nL2440989] to read the closing European market report.
* U.S. stocks fell to their lowest levels so far this year, with technology names leading the way down after a steep decline in shares of software company Autodesk Inc. (ADSK.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and a drop in chipmakers.
Higher oil prices dampened industrial stocks but lifted energy shares such as Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) , limiting the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average's losses to 0.23 percent. Double click here [ID:nN24105887] to read the closing Wall Street report.
* U.S. Treasuries held on to last week's gains and marked time ahead of economic reports that might have a bearing on next week's U.S. interest rate decision, including U.S. consumer confidence data at 1500 GMT and Friday's first reading of U.S. Q4 GDP growth.
Benchmark U.S. 10-year yields were trading at around 4.13 percent. Comparable 10-year European government bonds yielded 3.54 percent.
* Oil prices hovered between $48 and $49 barrel as the freezing U.S. Northeast looked ahead to warmer conditions and some traders moved to the sidelines ahead of Iraqi elections and an OPEC meeting.
* The euro traded around $1.3050 and 134.10 yen, consolidating its recent losses after more European officials called for Asian economies to take on a bigger share of the dollar's weakness and let their currencies rise as next week's G7 meeting loomed.
German Finance Minister Hans Eichel said on Monday that he hoped Asia would do more to promote flexible exchange rates.
That came on the heels of comments by the French finance minister and the Bank of France chief suggesting that Europe has shouldered too much of recent currency adjustments and wants the Group of Seven economic powers to address the dollar's weakness.
* In Tokyo, the Nikkei average eased 0.11 percent to a one-month closing low of 11,276 points, with chip maker Elpida Memory leading the decline in the tech sector after it cut its profit outlook for the year. * Other Asian indexes like the Kospi , Hang Seng and Straits Times were mixed.
* Gold approached key resistance of $428 an ounce but gain were capped as the dollar traded sideways.