Peter Nurse 

Investing.com: European stock markets will open lower on Tuesday due to the release of PMI data in the region and Covid-19 case surge.  

At 02:05 PM ET (705 GMT), Germany’s contract traded 0.1% less, France fell 0.2% and Britain dropped 0.4%.

Tuesday’s main topic will be the release of data from the Eurozone in the later part of the session. This will provide a snapshot of business activity and how it has responded to recent Covid surge cases.

From 57.8 in the month before, the PMI for the significant – a major growth driver for the region – is likely to fall to 56.9 for November. 

The German economy is the biggest in the Eurozone and will likely lose momentum over the last three months after the quarter-on-quarter growth of gross domestic product by 1.8% from July to September was weaker than expected.

Austria reinstated Monday a lockdown in its national capital to stop a new surge of Covid-19 cases. German Chancellor Angela Merkel blamed the country’s current situation for being worse than any she has seen, but called for stricter restrictions.

Market participants will also be trying to digest the President Joe Biden’s decision to rename Jerome Powell the Federal Reserve Chairman. Now, this nomination is headed to the Senate for confirmation. The tech-heavy Treasury market closed sharply lower, as investors bet that he would be more aggressive in fighting inflation than his possible replacement, Fed Governor Lael brainard.

E.ON (DE): Europe’s biggest operator of energy networks said Tuesday that it plans to raise 2-4 billion euro ($2.3-$4.5billion) from assets sales and partnerships, along with annual savings of 500 millions euros.

Although quarterly earnings are slowing in number, reports will be released Tuesday. Trent Severn Compass (LON) Kingfisher (LON:).

The U.S. is expected to soon release oil from strategic reserves, a growing indication that crude prices will fall on Tuesday.

According to Reuters reports, on Tuesday the United States would announce a crude oil loan from its emergency storage.

The likes of India, Japan, South Korea and China, the world’s biggest oil importer, are also expected to join in the release of additional output.

Futures were trading 1.1% less at $75.91 per barrel by 2:05 PM ET. Contracts fell 0.8% to $79.05. 

The price fell by 0.1% to $1.804.00/oz. However, it was trading at just 1.1237.