Peter Nurse 

Investing.com – European stock markets are expected to open largely lower Wednesday, handing back some of the previous session’s hefty gains amid caution over the potential success of Ukraine-Russia peace talks. 

The contract in Germany fell 0.4% at 2:05 AM ET (605 GMT) while in France it dropped 0.2%. Meanwhile, the contract for the U.K. climbed 0.2%.

Negotiations between Ukrainian and Russian diplomats in Istanbul Tuesday resulted in Russia stating it will sharply reduce military activity near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, with chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky saying the country would take steps to “de-escalate” the conflict.

European Equities closed sharply higher on Tuesday as the gained 2.8% while the rising 3.1%.

However, doubts have since emerged over Russia’s intentions, with the Pentagon warning that Kyiv remains under threat. 

Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, said Tuesday that Ukraine is not ignorant. “Ukrainians learned that they cannot trust anything in the last 34 days, as well as the eight-years of war in Donbass,” Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukrainian President, said late Tuesday.

This European data set includes data on consumer inflation, sentiment data from the Eurozone and Italy as well as data about Eurozone consumers. 

However, all eyes will be on U.S. markets, where fourth-quarter results are expected, and ADP data being released on Friday ahead of closely monitored monthly.

UBS (SIX 🙂 will feature in corporate news after UBS announced its results for its share buyback 2021. It spent 3.81 billion Swiss Swiss Francs ($4.10billion) on repurchasing shares equal to 6.49%.

Next The U.K. retailer will release the latest earnings and (LON) will be present as well.

The oil price rose on Wednesday after a retreat of two days. It was a result of a new reminder of tight markets as stock data last week showed that stocks had fallen sharply.

The industry group, the, reported that U.S. crude inventories dropped by 3,000,000 barrels during the week ending March 25, according to data. Later in the session, the official data of the will be available.

The oil market had dropped about 2% in the previous session following the progress in the Ukraine/Russia peace talks, and more than 7% on Monday on demand worries over fresh Covid-19 lockdowns in China, the world’s largest crude importer. 

U.S. crude oil futures were 1.2% higher at $105.52 per barrel by 2:05 PM ET. Contracts rose 1.3% to $109.08. 

The price of gold rose 0.6% to $1924.40/oz while it traded 0.2% lower at 1.1110.