By Peter Nurse 

Investing.com – European stock markets are expected to weaken Thursday, following Asia lower amid slowing growth and increasing regulatory concerns.

At 2:10 AM ET (0610 GMT), the contract in Germany traded 0.1% lower, the contract in the U.K. fell 0.3%, but in France climbed 0.3%.

European markets are seeing a weaker handover from Asia on Thursday with the Hong Kong benchmark index (the ) falling almost 2%. Casino shares extended the previous day’s rout as the Chinese government sought to tighten its grip on Macau, the world’s biggest gambling hub.

Evergrande’s stock, an unprofitable Chinese real estate company, fell 10% as Evergrande applied for suspension trading of its corporate bonds onshore, raising new worries about default risks.

Economic data from China released Wednesday pointed to the world’s second largest economy suffering from slowing growth in August thanks to Covid-19 outbreaks and supply disruptions.

Vivendi, which announced Wednesday night that it had purchased another Lagardere stake (PA:), paving way for a takeover.

The 27% share of Lagardere is already owned by the digital entertainment company. Vivendi (OTC:) announced that it would buy Amber Capital’s 17.9% stake and will launch an actual bid once the threshold of 30% has been met.

Also, earnings are expected from the likes of John Lewis (LON:), Kier Group (LON:) and Superdry (LON:).

Economic data are thin on the ground in Europe Thursday, and a lot of the attention will be on the release of U.S. August and weekly for clues of the health of the important U.S. economy.

After a sharp decline in crude stock in the United States (the largest oil user in the world), crude prices rose Thursday.

The Energy Information Administration reported that crude oil fell by 6.4 million barrels last week as the U.S. Gulf of Mexico tried to repair the damages caused by Hurricane Ida.

By 2:10 AM ET, futures traded 0.1% higher at $72.62 a barrel, while the contract rose 0.1% to $75.52. These two contracts rose by 3% each on Wednesday. They are now up almost 50% year-to date.

Additionally, fell 0.5% to $1,786.10/oz, while traded 0.1% lower at 1.1805.