European Stocks Close Lower As Investors Move Past ECB Rate Cut, Digest U.S. Jobs Data

(RTTNews) - European stocks closed lower on Friday as the euphoria over an interest rate cut by the European Central Bank subsided a bit, and expectations of an early interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve faded a bit after data showed a much stronger than expected growth in U.S. non-farm payroll employment in May.

The pan European Stoxx 600 ended down 0.22%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 and France's CAC 40 both closed lower by 0.48%, and Germany's DAX drifted down 0.51%, while Switzerland's SMI edged up 0.11%.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Turkiye ended weak.

Denmark, Greece, Iceland, Norway, Russia and Sweden closed lower, while Netherlands ended flat.

Fresnillo dropped about 5.7%. Prudential, ICG, Persimmon, Antofagasta, Kingfisher, Segro, Howden Joinery, Rentokil Initial, Experian, EasyJet, Unite Group and JD Sports Fashion lost 2 to 4.1%.

Compass Group, Pearson, Diploma, Whitbread, IMI, Weir Group, National Grid and Convatec Group posted gains.

In the German market, Vonovia tumbled more than 7%. Daimler Truck Holding ended down 4.2% and Zalando ended lower by about 3%. Sartorius, RWE, E.ON, Bayer and Mercedes Benz also ended notably lower.

Infineon rallied nearly 4%. Covestro gained about 2.5%, while Commerzbank, Beiersdorf and Rheinmetall gained 1.2 to 2%.

In the French market, Orange ended lower by about 4%. Engie, Vinci, Airbus Group, Bouygues, Veolia, Vivendi, Pernod Ricard, Dassault Systemes, Renault, Unibail Rodamco, Saint-Gobain and Safran lost 1 to 3%.

On the economic front, euro area economy expanded as initially expected in the first quarter, underpinned by household consumption and exports, latest data from the statistical office Eurostat showed. The seasonally adjusted GDP grew 0.3% from the fourth quarter, when output declined 0.1%. GDP increased by 0.4% year-on-year in the euro area after a revised 0.2% growth in the previous three months.

Germany's exports and imports growth accelerated in April, data from Destatis showed. Exports grew at a faster pace of 1.6% on a monthly basis, following March's revised 1.1% increase. Shipments were forecast to grow 1.1%. At the same time, imports growth advanced to 2% from 0.5% in March. The rate also exceeded economists' forecast of 0.6%. As a result, the trade surplus fell slightly to EUR 22.1 billion from EUR 22.2 billion in the previous month. Germany's industrial production edged down 0.1% on a monthly basis in April. This follows a 0.4% drop in March. Although the pace of decrease softened from March, this was in contrast to economists' forecast of 0.3% gain.

Year-on-year, industrial production registered a decline of 3.9% after easing 4.3% in March, data showed.

France's trade deficit increased in April as imports rose amid a fall in exports, data released by the customs office showed. The trade deficit rose to EUR 7.6 billion in April from EUR 5.4 billion in March. The expected shortfall was EUR 5.4 billion. In the same period last year, the deficit totaled EUR 9.9 billion.

Data from the mortgage lender Halifax showed UK house prices dropped unexpectedly by 0.1% month-on-month in May after remaining flat in April. Prices were expected to grow 0.2%.

In the U.S., data from the Labor Department showed non-farm payroll employment surged by 272,000 jobs in May after climbing by a downwardly revised 165,000 jobs in April. Economists had expected employment to increase by about 185,000 jobs compared to the addition of 175,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

The report also showed the annual rate of growth by average hourly employee earnings accelerated to 4.1% in May from 4% in April.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department said the unemployment rate crept up to 4% in May from 3.9% in April.