More than Half of Europeans Put Inflation on Top of Their Concerns

The U.S. equities traded higher in the premarket this European afternoon ahead of the release of the latest activities reports on services and manufacturing sectors. Earlier, the U.S. Department of Commerce revealed its plan to invest $50 billion in the semiconductor industry through President Biden's recently signed CHIPS and Science Act. Also, the U.S. Congress needs to pass a stop-gap bill to keep the federal government funded.

As of 2:20 p.m. CET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 0.71% higher. In its turn, the Nasdaq Composite advanced by 0.68%. At the same time, the S&P 500 rose by 0.71%. Corporatewise, shares of FedEx (FDX) are dropping 1.5% reaching a 3-month low in premarket trading, after Citi (C) analysts downgraded the courier delivery company citing concerns over the pace of freight activity with upcoming data expected to "skew negatively" in the peak season.

European markets are trading higher ahead of the UK's construction data and despite the ongoing energy crisis and yesterday's economic data. Germany also published its factory orders data for July, however, the market was seemingly unresponsive to that, as the German index opened in the green zone.

At the time of writing, the Frankfurt's DAX advanced by 0.81%, as Zalando Se (ZAL.DE) soared by 4.41%. The French CAC 40 edged higher by 0.4% at the same time, with Societe Generale (GLE.PA) being its best performer, which traded 0.75% higher. The British FTSE 100 creeped up by 0.21% concurrently, with Associated British Foods (ABF.L) going higher by 2.57%. According to the latest Eurobarometer survey, 34% of European Union citizens mention inflation as the most important issue facing the union, followed by energy supply at 28%. On a national level, inflation tops the list at 54%, while energy supply preoccupied 22% of EU respondents. Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Europe of causing the current energy crisis on the continent, saying the European countries are now ''harvesting what they sowed,'' as the crisis was caused by Western sanctions against Moscow.

Asian markets traded mixed earlier today. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.02%, China’s Shanghai Composite rose 1.36% and India’s S&P BSE SENSEX rose 0.3%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.12% and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 also fell 0.4%.

The Reserve Bank of Australia decided to hike the cash rate by 50 bps to 2.35% at the ongoing September meeting. Australian current account surplus increased to AUD 18.3 billion in the Q2 versus AUD 2.8 billion during Q1. Nominal wages in Japan surged 1.8% on an annual basis in July.