The French market is moderately lower on Tuesday, amid profit taking, as investors looked to further clues on when the Federal Reserve will begin to taper off its stimulus program.
The Federal Open Market Committee is scheduled to release its minutes and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is to speak before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress on Wednesday.
Germany's producer price inflation slowed for the third consecutive month in April, data released by the Federal Statistical Office revealed.
Meanwhile, U.K. consumer price inflation slowed more than expected in April, to the lowest since September, while output prices inflation in the factory sector eased more than estimated.
St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard is due to speak on monetary policy in a low rate environment, in Frankfurt at 11:30 am ET.
The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks is losing 0.60 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, is falling 0.52 percent.
The CAC 40 index is currently declining 0.6 percent.
BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole and Societe Generale are losing between 3.7 percent and 1 percent.
Tiremaker Michelin is falling 3.3 percent and car manufacturer Renault is dropping 2.3 percent.
Elsewhere in Europe, the German DAX is falling 0.5 percent and Switzerland's SMI is dropping 0.4 percent, while the UK's FTSE 100 is nearly unchanged.
Across Asia/Pacific, markets ended mostly lower. Among major markets, Australia's All Ordinaries fell 0.6 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.5 percent. China's Shanghai Composite Index and Japan's Nikkei 225 gained modestly.
In the U.S., futures point to a mixed open on Wall Street. In the previous session, the major U.S. averages slipped about 0.1 percent each in thin trading as traders were reluctant to make any significant moves amid a lack of major U.S. economic data.
In the commodity space, crude for June delivery is falling $0.36 to $96.35 per barrel and June gold is sliding $6.6 to $1377.5 a troy ounce.
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