LIVE MARKETS-Europe before the bell: lots of worries to choose from

By Reuters News

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EUROPE BEFORE THE BELL: LOTS OF WORRIES TO CHOOSE FROM

European shares are set to fall at the open as the positive news from slightly lower bond yields and a night of uneasy calm in France is outweighed by another nudge higher in energy prices, and a new round of tech jitters.

Markets are still in something of a holding pattern ahead of the week's big tech earnings, but that's giving traders a chance to think through all the reasons for nervousness.

In Europe, natural gas prices are sitting around their highest since 2022, and even if companies are in a better place than they were four years ago, that's not the highest bar in the world to beat. EU/NG

Tuesday also saw shares of South Korean AI services firm Elice Group 0158S0.KQ plummet 30% in their market debut, not a sign of a booming market.

Add long-term fundamental worries about the European social fabric into the mix, and it's not surprising traders are cautious.

Euro STOXX 50 futures are down 0.5% with FTSE futures down a similar amount.

Of course, all those worries could be scotched by another strong earnings season, which is starting to get going in Europe too. Though here the bar is high: third-quarter earnings for the pan-regional STOXX 600 .STOXX are expected to grow 20.7% from a year ago.

Earnings on Tuesday included Swiss engineering group ABB, which at least supported some of the optimism. It said a boom in spending on data centres used to power artificial intelligence helped push its quarterly orders to a record.

(Alun John)

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