European Stocks Seen Lower Pressured by German Comments

European stocks were expected to open lower on Tuesday after German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble zapped investor optimism by warning on Monday there would be no rapid solution to the sovereign debt crisis within the euro zone.

The FTSE [ .FTSE 5375.46  -61.24 (-1.13%) ] is called 43 points lower, the DAX [ .GDAXI 5787.63  -71.80 (-1.23%) ] in Frankfurt is expected to open down by 58 points and the CAC 40 [ CAC40 3123.78  -42.28 (-1.34%) ] is predicted to be lower by 25 points.

Schaeuble said that while European governments were working to adopt a five-point platform to ease the debt crisis, there would be no definitive solution until the European Union summit on October 23.

The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) [ .VIX 33.39  +5.15 (+18.24%) ] rose by 18.2 percent to 33.39 following his remarks, the highest single day increase since August.

In Asia overnight, investor sentiment was hit by the German Finance Minister's comments and worse-than-expected GDP data from China, showing the Chinese economy grew at its slowest pace since the second quarter of 2009. 

Former vice-minister of commerce and senior adviser at a government think tank, Wei Jianguo told the China Daily that the nation could experience its first trade deficit for two decades next year due to the crisis in Europe and the broader global economic slowdown.