European stock futures slide ahead of ECB meeting

September 9, 2021

(Reuters) – European stock futures slid on Thursday, tracking Asian shares lower on concerns of slowing global growth, while expectations were running high for the European Central Bank to announce a timeline to slow down bond purchases later in the day.

Futures tracking Europe’s top 50 firms were down 0.6% by 0605 GMT. Among regional markets, UK’s FTSE futures led the declines with 0.8% drop and German DAX futures lost 0.5%.

The ECB is expected to slow its bond buying via its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP), according to a Reuters poll, but also reassure markets that this is not the start of a gradual exit from easy policy.

Asian shares dropped more than a percent, with Chinese gaming stocks coming under pressure from fresh regulatory scrutiny, while data showed China’s factory gate inflation hit a 13-year high in August.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

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