European Shares Likely To See Tepid Start As Taiwan Tensions Rise

(RTTNews) - European stocks may drift lower at open on Tuesday, with recession fears and worries about an escalation in Sino-U.S. tensions likely to weigh on sentiment.

Asian markets fell broadly, with Chinese and Hong Kong stocks leading regional losses as reports that U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would visit Taiwan fanned China-U.S. tensions.

Chinese fighter jets are said to have been deployed near self-ruled Taiwan to pressure Pelosi to back down.

If China tries to create some kind of crisis, or otherwise escalate tensions, that would be entirely on Beijing, said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

A drop in the dollar index and U.S. Treasury yields boosted demand for gold, while oil extended overnight losses on concerns about global oil demand.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia will push OPEC+ to increase oil production at an upcoming meeting on Wednesday, a Fox Business news reporter said in a tweet.

In economic releases, the U.K. Nationwide house price data is due later in the session. Economists expect house prices to climb 11.5 percent on a yearly basis in July, following June's 10.7 percent increase in June.

U.S. stocks snapped a three-day winning streak on Monday, as weak economic data from the U.S., Europe and China overshadowed earnings optimism and bets over a more moderate pace of rate increases at the upcoming policy meetings.

The Dow slipped 0.1 percent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite inched down 0.2 percent and the S&P 500 eased 0.3 percent.

European stocks ended lower for the first time in three days on Monday after a choppy trading.

The pan European Stoxx 600 slid 0.2 percent. The German DAX ended little changed, France's CAC 40 index eased 0.2 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 edged down 0.1 percent.