(RTTNews) - The European markets may open on a positive note Tuesday on the back of steady metal and crude oil prices. While metal prices showed modest gains on Tuesday after the weakness in the previous session, crude oil futures are benefiting from a weaker dollar and are now trading at $70 a barrel, up 0.42%.

That said, cautious undertone may prevail ahead of the beginning of a two-day policy-setting U.S. Federal Reserve meeting later in the session.

The U.S. central bank is expected to keep its benchmark rate unchanged at 0.25%, but investors are looking for signs of how quickly it might remove its extraordinary programs to revive lending and hiring.

The markets may also closely watch the outcome of the G-20 meeting to be held in Pittsburgh on Thursday and Friday, where leaders of the G20 nations attempt to assess what went wrong with the global economy and deliberate on measures to fix it.

Asian stocks showed modest gains on Tuesday on optimism the region’s economies can help lead a global recovery.

On Wall Street, the major U.S. averages closed mixed on Monday after a highly lackluster session. After declining sharply early on, stocks rebounded to some extent after the Conference Board released a report that showed its leading economic indicators index rose for the fifth consecutive month in August. While the Nasdaq ended the day up 0.2%, the Dow fell 0.4% and the S&P 500 closed down 0.3%.

In corporate news, mining company Rio Tinto said it agreed to sell its Alcan Composites business, part of the Alcan Engineered Products division, to Switzerland’s Schweiter Technologies AG for US$349 million.

MedImmune, the worldwide biologics business for AstraZeneca Plc said that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has placed an order for an additional 29 million doses of its live attenuated influenza vaccine.

According to the Wall Street Journal, UK-based confectioner Cadbury Plc said that the proposed deal with the world’s second largest food company Kraft Foods Inc. would make “some strategic sense”.

Demand is still subdued and we are yet to see big orders from government stimulus packages, ABB chairman Hubertus von Gruenberg said on Monday.

Deutsche Bank AG and Credit Suisse Group are looking to attract Asia-based hedge funds and U.S. and European start-ups with $100 million to $250 million in assets, the Wall Street Journal reported.

French investment firm Wendel SA offered to exchange up to 400 million euros of its 5% bonds due 2011 for 4.875% bonds maturing in 2014.

Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccine unit of French pharmaceutical group Sanofi-Aventis received an additional order from the U.S. government for 27.3 million doses of its swine flu vaccine.

French-Dutch airline Air France-KLM Group said it cut overall capacity for the winter 2009 season by 2 percent in terms of available seat kilometers.

Babcock & Brown Infrastructure announced that it received a refinancing proposal from Royal Bank Of Scotland Group Plc on September 17, acting on behalf of an investor group comprising primarily international hedge funds.

Sirius Exploration Plc announced that it has entered into lock-up deal with the directors and management of AusPotash Corp. to buy all of the issued and outstanding common shares of AusPotash at C$0.40 per AusPotash share.

The European markets fell for the second day on Monday amid anxiety that a six-month stock market rally might have been overdone. The FTSEurofirst 30 index of pan-European blue chips closed 0.74% lower, while the narrower DJ Stoxx 50 index fell 0.58%.

Around Europe, the U.K.’s FTSE 100 index slipped 0.57%, France’s CAC 40 index fell 0.41% and Germany’s DAX index dropped 0.62%.

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Posted in Categories: Eurozone, Releases, Stocks, Switzerland, UK, USA.

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