European markets are expected to open flat to lower Tuesday ahead of the New Year holiday.
London’s FTSE 100 index is expected to open 20 points lower at 8,100 and France’s CAC 40 is seen opening 5 points lower at 7,309. Both bourses will be closing early today.
Markets in Germany and Italy are shut for the whole day. All European markets will be closed on New Year’s Day before reopening on Jan. 2.
European markets closed lower on Monday after the final full trading session of the year, but regional stocks look set to round out the year with moderate gains. The Stoxx 600 is up around 5.5% so far this year, although that’s far behind the U.S. S&P 500 index, which has gained around 25% over the course of 2024.
Traders will again be keeping an eye on New York-listed shares of Boeing after one of its aircraft was involved in a fatal crash in South Korea on Sunday.
Boeing shares were down around 2.2% on Monday. South Korean authorities are set to conduct an investigation into the crash, in which 179 people died, in an effort to determine its exact cause.
The Boeing 737-800, the model involved in the crash, is one of the world’s most commonly used airplanes, and has a strong safety record.
U.S. stock futures were slightly lower ahead of the final trading session of 2024, following another booming year for Wall Street. Asia-Pacific markets fell overnight as China’s manufacturing growth missed expectations. The country’s benchmark CSI 300 was nonetheless on course to close the year higher, ending three years of losses.
— CNBC’s Chloe Taylor contributed to this market report.