FX.co ★ European Shares Set For Cautious Start With Focus On Fed Meeting

It is expected that the European stocks will start off on a predominantly lower note on Tuesday, as investors are gearing their attention towards the subsequent profit announcements, data releases from the U.S., and the FOMC meeting. The investors are keenly anticipating the policy meeting of the Federal Reserve to be held on Wednesday. They hope to glean insights about its future course of action.

While no adjustment in interest rates is anticipated, the Federal Reserve's policy notation and statements from Chair Jerome Powell might provide some insight into potential interest rate cuts by the U.S. central bank in the foreseeable future.

Besides the FOMC assembly, upcoming earnings announcements by Amazon and Apple as well as the U.S. job report for April are also on the investors' watchlist. There's also attention on the European home front, where quick quarterly national account summaries from Eurozone and other key euro region economies will be released later in the day.

In the Asian markets, the stocks trend was on the higher side, with Japanese markets registering regional profits as trading recommenced after an extended weekend. However, the indexes of Chinese and Hong Kong markets portrayed a more subdued mood after recent business activity assessments painted a nuanced picture of the world's second largest economy.

It is reported that in China, manufacturing and service activities for the month of April expanded at a slower than expected rate, as per the official surveys. Concurrently, the Caixin factory review indicated a quicker growth of manufacturing due to increased new export orders.

The Japanese yen managed to maintain its profits amidst suspected intervention by Japanese monetary authorities in the currency exchange market. The value of gold witnessed a minor decline while oil prices also followed suit, marking its significant drop in two weeks as the ceasefire discussions between Israel and Hamas in Cairo seemed to ease the market tensions regarding a full-blown Middle East conflict.

The U.S. stocks depicted a moderate gain extending the profits from the previous week in anticipation of the impending Fed meeting. At the same time, Tesla announced that it had successfully cleared its way for introducing self-driving software in China.

While both the Dow and the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite marked an approximate increase of 0.4 percent, the S&P 500 saw a rise of 0.3 percent. On Monday, the European stocks experienced a mixed day, forfeiting their initial profits. With the STOXX 600 marginally higher, German DAX saw a slip of 0.2 percent. France's CAC 40 lost 0.3 percent while U.K.'s FTSE 100 ended the day with a slightly positive bias.