While the quarter-end results season is still in full swing, investors are preparing for another rate rise from the Federal Reserve.

While the quarter-end results season is still in full swing, investors are preparing for another rate rise from the Federal Reserve, which is predicted to cause European stock markets to begin Wednesday with a modest decline.

Investors around the world anticipate that the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point later in the day since it is decision day.

In its last 12 policy sessions, the central bank has raised rates 11 times, acting forcefully in its fight to rein in spiralling inflation.

Yet, given prices are now down, investors are hoping that this will be the Fed's final rate rise, therefore attention will be on Chair Jerome Powell's remarks during the next press conference about possible future choices.

Continued quarterly corporate earnings flood the market As investment banking revenues declined, Deutsche Bank reported a 27% decline in second-quarter earnings on Wednesday. However, this decline was somewhat offset by improvements in its retail segment.

As a result of CEO Alison Rose's earlier Wednesday resignation, which came after she acknowledged making a "serious error of judgement" in speaking to a BBC journalist about former Brexit party leader Nigel Farage's association with the bank, NatWest is also expected to be in the spotlight.

Across the globe, another hectic session is highlighted by Meta, but investors will also review mainly positive earnings from Alphabet and Microsoft.

After industry data revealed a surge in U.S. crude stocks, signalling that supplies were not as tight as previously believed in the significant American market, oil prices fell from three-month highs.

Tuesday's data from the API revealed that U.S. oil stockpiles increased by 1.3 million barrels over the previous week. Later in the session, official data from the Energy Information Administration will be examined for confirmation.

(Sources: investing.com, reuters.com)