European stocks look set to open a tad lower on Wednesday as oil prices extended overnight losses to languish near multi-month lows and the dollar pulled back from one-month highs against a basket of currencies in the wake of mixed comments from Fed officials on the rate outlook.
The yen strengthened against the dollar on skepticism about whether the Federal Reserve will raise rates again in September. The British pound wobbled near two-month lows after Bank of England Governor Mark Carney downplayed the possibility of an interest rate increase anytime soon.
Asian stock markets are broadly lower, although Chinese shares held steady after U.S. index provider MSCI finally decided to include mainland Chinese stocks to one of its key benchmarks.
Overnight, U.S. stocks fell notably as oil prices slumped more than 2 percent on concerns about oversupply and investors eyed speeches from several Fed officials for clues on future monetary policy moves.
The Dow slid 0.3 percent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq shed 0.8 percent and the S&P 500 dropped 0.7 percent.
European markets also erased early gains to end lower on Tuesday, with the pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index losing 0.7 percent.
The German DAX declined 0.6 percent, France's CAC 40 index slid 0.3 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 dropped 0.7 percent.
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Market Analysis
May 08, 2026 15:50 ET Manufacturing and services sector survey results and labor market data from main economies were the highlight on the economics news front this week. Factory orders and jobs report dominated the news flow in the U.S. Similarly, industrial production data from German garnered attention in Europe. In Asia, purchasing managers’ survey results from China and the central bank decision from Australia were in focus.