• Asian stocks drop, European shares waver
• Crude prices tick higher
• U.S. Treasury yields down
European stocks edged down after deeper losses in Asia, ahead of a Federal Reserve policy decision Wednesday when the central bank is expected to cut interest rates.
The Stoxx Europe 600 was down 0.1%, with gains in the construction and oil-and-gas sectors offset by losses in real estate.
Shares of Next, the British clothing company, notched the biggest rise at 7.6% after it raised its forecast for profit and sales.
Photo:
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Asian stocks were rattled after tweets from President Trump dampened expectations Tuesday for a breakthrough in U.S.-China trade talks. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down by 1.3% and the Shanghai Composite Index fell by 0.7%.
Shares of Chinese property developers fell after the country’s top leadership vowed not to use the real-estate market as a tool to arrest an economic slowdown. At a meeting Tuesday, the Communist Party’s top decision-making body reiterated that housing is “used for living, not for speculation,” adding that it “will not use real estate as a short-term means of stimulating the economy.”
In the U.S., the yield on the 10-year Treasurys fell to 2.051% from 2.063% Tuesday. Yields fall when bond prices rise. The WSJ Dollar Index, which measures the currency against a basket of peers, slipped by 0.1%.
On the earnings front, General Electric and Qualcomm are among the large companies due to report Wednesday.
European data on second-quarter gross domestic product and inflation are also due Wednesday.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude was up 0.6% at $65.03 a barrel, amid continued tensions in the Middle East and expectations of lower interest rates in the U.S. Gold edged up 0.1%.
—Shen Hong contributed to this article.
Write to Lauren Almeida at lauren.almeida@wsj.com
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