European Shares Subdued As Investors Await Fed Comments

(RTTNews) - European stocks were subdued on Thursday as softer U.S. consumer inflation data brought Fed rate cuts back into focus.

The dollar was on the back foot and U.S Treasury yields sank to six-week troughs as investors awaited comments from Federal Reserve officials for additional clues on the rate outlook.

Closer home, the European Central Bank is widely expected to start cutting interest rates from a record high in June, with economists expecting up to three rate cuts this year.

The pan European STOXX 600 was down 0.2 percent at 523.70 after gaining for nine consecutive sessions.

The German DAX slid 0.2 percent, France's CAC 40 shed half a percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was down 0.3 percent.

Eni shares fell 2.2 percent. The Italian Economy Ministry, the Ministero dell'Economia e delle Finanze or MEF, announced the sale of approximately 2.8 percent of the share capital of the energy major for a total amount equal to around 1.4 billion euros.

Reinsurance company Swiss Re rallied 3.5 percent and Zurich Insurance jumped 2 percent following upbeat first-quarter earnings.

Dutch insurer Aegon NV rose over 1 percent on share buyback news.

Oil & gas giant BP Plc fell 2.1 percent in London on going ex-dividend.

Low-cost airline easyJet slumped 6 percent after posting a slightly larger than expected pre-tax loss of £350 million ($443 million) for the first half of the year.

Telecom company BT soared 11 percent after the new boss of the company set out a path to more than double free cash flow over the next five years.

Future Plc shares soared 13.7 percent. The publishing company announced a share buyback program of up to 45 million pounds ($57.1 million) after reporting a return to growth in the past quarter.

Software company Sage Group lost nearly 13 percent despite reporting a robust first-half performance.

Germany's Siemens shed 5.4 percent after the company posted a drop in its second-quarter earnings at its industrial business.

Deutsche Telekom shares fell about 1 percent. The telecom major reported that its first-quarter net profit plunged 87.1 percent to 1.98 billion euros from last year's 15.36 billion euros.