German Market Trades Lower

(RTTNews) - The German market is trading lower on Wednesday, as investors remained cautious amid a mixed bag of earnings news. Sentiment was also impacted by lingering fears over the Fed tapering.

China's Communist Party agreed to offer bigger role for markets in the world's second largest economy as part of the sweeping reforms outlined by party leadership during the Third Plenum meeting that concluded in Beijing on Tuesday.

China needs to build an open and unified market with orderly competition before letting the market decide the allocation of resources, the CPC said in a statement.

On the economic front, the Bank of England is set to publish its Inflation Report at 5.30 am ET. The central bank is widely expected to upgrade its growth projections and predict a faster fall in the unemployment.

British unemployment claims declined more than expected by economists in October, while the jobless rate edged lower in the three-months to September, data from the Office for National Statistics showed.

The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks is losing 0.34 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, is falling 0.64 percent.

The DAX index is currently losing 0.2 percent.

Utility E.ON reported lower profit for the first nine months of the year, amid a 5 percent drop in revenues. Further, the firm cut the upper end of its full year forecast for EBITDA and underlying net income. The stock is down 0.5 percent.

ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG is declining 5 percent after KKR & Co. and Permira Advisers LLP sold 35 million shares in the company.

Construction giant Hochtief reported a sharp decline in third-quarter consolidated net profit, while operational earnings grew from last year. The company said it looks ahead with confidence to the remainder of the year, and reaffirmed its guidance for 2013. The stock is up 2.4 percent.

The Asian stocks fell broadly after China's third plenum meeting failed to outline steps to curb state dominance of the economy, saying markets would play a "decisive" role in allocating resources.

In the U.S., futures point to a lower open on Wall Street. In the previous session, the Dow and the S&P 500 slipped around 0.2 percent each, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq closed just above the unchanged line.

In the commodity space, crude for December delivery is adding $0.32 to $93.36 per barrel and December gold is gaining $3.1 to $1274.3 a troy ounce.