Peter Nurse 

Investing.com: European stock markets will open slightly higher Tuesday, ahead of the opening of new round of peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia with Turkey. 

At 02:01 AM ET (600 GMT), Germany’s contract traded 0.4% lower, France rose 1.2%, and the U.K contract rose 0.6%.

The Russian and Ukrainian negotiators have been scheduled to meet later Tuesday in Turkey in face-toface discussions. It will be the first direct talks in two weeks between these two countries.

Despite the stocks market gains, however, there is little chance of breakthrough. Kyiv wants a ceasefire, but not without any compromises on territory or sovereignty, while Russia continues its territorial demands.

Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, called for Western countries to quickly toughen sanctions on Russia. He also called for an oil embargo.

U.S. and German government officials are set to meet later this week with energy industry executives to discuss ways to boost alternative supplies for Germany, the Eurozone’s largest economy which has been reliant on Russian oil and gas.

The European Economic Data Slate fell to -15.5 in April from an updated -8.5 for March, due to the conflict in Ukraine and the rising prices of commodities.

Later on in the session the Bank of England will release its most recent. Its publication is expected to be closely studied as the U.K. central banks continues to raise interest rates.

This is corporate news Sanofi (NASDAQ:) is set to be the focus of attention after the French healthcare company raised its maximum sales goal for the eczema treatment product Dupixent from 13 billion euros ($14.3billion).

Oil prices retreated Tuesday, continuing the previous session’s weakness on fears that a surge in Covid-19 cases in China will hit demand from the world’s top crude importer and ahead of the Ukraine/Russia peace talks.

The city of Shanghai, China’s financial hub, remains under a two-stage, nine-day lockdown to curb rising numbers of Covid cases.

Sanctions imposed on Russia after it invaded Ukraine have disrupted oil supplies from the world’s second largest crude exporter, sending prices to 14-year highs earlier this month. 

Futures were trading 0.6% less at $105.36 per barrel by 2AM ET. The contract was 0.5% lower at $108.98. On Monday, both benchmark contracts fell by 7%.

The price fell 0.9% to $1922.85/oz. However, it was 0.1% lower at 1.0987.