By Peter Nurse

- European stock markets are expected to open slightly lower Tuesday, as investors fret about the region’s economic outlook while central banks continue to tackle inflation at elevated levels.

At 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT), the contract in Germany traded 0.3% lower, in France dropped 0.2%, and the contract in the U.K. fell 0.2%.

Risk-off sentiment is holding sway globally Tuesday, with European equities set to follow the negative close on Wall Street after unexpectedly accelerated in November, raising concerns that the could continue to tighten monetary policy aggressively.

Back in Europe, the is also expected to increase interest rates next week, and will have to raise interest rates several more times to tame price pressures, according to ECB chief economist Philip Lane

"We do expect that more rate increases will be necessary, but a lot has been done already," the Italian paper Milano Finanza quoted Lane as saying on Tuesday. "I would be reasonably confident in saying that it is likely we are close to peak inflation."

And there’s not even a reasonably healthy economy to fall back on.

Data released on Monday showed that declined for a fifth month in November, indicating that the region’s economy was headed for a recession next year, while slumped as consumers slashed spending amid surging .

from Germany, the biggest economy in the Eurozone, rose 0.8% in October, data released Tuesday showed. This was more than expected, and represents an improvement from the revised 2.9% drop the prior month, but offers very little to celebrate.

In the corporate sector, Porsche AG (ETR:) will be in the spotlight after exchange operator Deutsche Boerse said on Monday the sportscar manufacturer will join the German blue-chip on Dec. 19, just over two months after its market debut.

Porsche AG will replace sportswear maker Puma (ETR:), which will move down to the index.

Crude oil prices rebounded Tuesday after the previous session’s sharp losses, on continued optimism of a recovery in Chinese demand as several cities in the world’s top crude importer relaxed more COVID curbs over the weekend.

Oil prices slumped more than 3% on Monday after the strong U.S. services sector data, while traders digested the EU import ban and Group of Seven's $60-a-barrel price cap on seaborne Russian oil coming into force.

By 02:00 ET, futures traded 0.8% higher at $77.56 a barrel, while the contract rose 0.8% to $83.37.

Additionally, fell 0.1% to $1,780.45/oz, while traded 0.1% lower at 1.0483.