European Shares Mixed As Investors Look To UK Budget

(RTTNews) - European shares were mixed on Friday, a day after the European Central Bank (ECB) cut its deposit rate by 25 basis points to 3.25 percent, citing sluggish economic growth and easing inflation.

According to its quarterly survey of professional forecasters, the ECB sees inflation falling to 1.9 percent in 2025 from a previous forecast of 2 percent. The projections for 2024 and 2026 were kept unchanged at 2.4 percent and 1.9 percent.

The pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.2 percent at 524.98 after climbing 0.8 percent in the previous session.

The German DAX rose 0.2 percent and France's CAC 40 added 0.4 percent while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was down 0.2 percent in the lead-up to Chancellor Rachel Reeves's first budget on October 30, where tax increases and spending cuts amounting to £40 billion are expected.

In corporate news, Swedish truck maker Volvo rose about 2 percent despite posting a bigger-than-expected drop in quarterly adjusted earnings and forecasting stagnant demand next year.

British luxury brand Burberry jumped 4 percent in London after official data showed U.K. retail sales logged an unexpected growth in September on higher sales of technology products.

Retail sales grew 0.3 percent on month in September, confounding expectations for a 0.3 percent fall. This marked the third consecutive increase.

British American Tobacco shares tumbled nearly 3 percent after the company said it aims to settle ongoing lawsuits in Canada through a court-mediated plan.

Miners Anglo American, Antofagasta and Glencore surged 2-3 percent after China's major commercial banks cut their deposit rates for a second time this year and the country's central bank officially launched a swap facility aimed at boosting the equity market.

Stratec SE shares fell more than 2 percent. The German maker of analyzer and automation systems for In-Vitro-Diagnostic reported that preliminary consolidated sales for the first nine months of 2024 declined to 176.3 million euros from 187.7 million euros last year.