Peter Nurse 

Investing.com. European stock market are likely to open marginally lower this Thursday. Investors react cautiously after the Federal Reserve meeting minutes indicated that further aggressive tightening is possible.

The contract in Germany was 0.3% less at 2AM ET (0600 GMT) and in France 0.1%. Meanwhile, the contract in Britain fell 0.3%.

The from the Fed’s May 3-4 meeting, released on Wednesday, showed that all policymakers supported the central bank’s of 50 basis points, the first of that size in more than 20 years.

The minutes also stated that the majority of participants believed that additional hikes in this size were “likely appropriate” during Fed policy meetings in June/ July.

Because of persistent worries about global growth, the European equity markets remain fragile. However, central banks continue to try to reduce the inflation rate, which has been made worse by the continuing war in Ukraine.

This week, the European Central Bank President stated that the ECB’s Negative should begin rising in July. The rate could rise to zero by September and then “towards neutral” at the end.

On Thursday, the economic data data table is almost empty. The only noteworthy entries are industrial sales and Italian confidence data. The session will focus on the U.S., with the release and weekly indicators of a cooling economy.

The tech sector will be the focus of corporate news after Nvidia, U.S. Chip Designer (NASDAQ:), predicted late Wednesday that sales of its videogame chips would fall in the current quarter. This was attributed to supply-chain problems resulting in China’s COVID-19 Lockdowns.

In Europe (LON.) and LON. are two of the companies that will be releasing earnings results.

Oil prices rose on Thursday due to a larger-than-expected drawdown last week of 1 million barrels. It is an indication of tight global markets.

The question on the market is still whether the European Union could agree to an economic embargo against Russian oil as a retaliation for Ukraine’s invasion. 

On Wednesday, Charles Michel, President of the European Council said that he was confident an agreement could be reached prior to May 30’s meeting. However Hungary is still a problem.

The contract was 0.4% lower at $110.77 per barrel by 2AM ET while it rose 0.2% to $111.30 

The price fell 0.2% to $1.842.76/oz and traded 0.1% higher at 1.0676