European Shares Drift Lower As Investors Await ECB Meeting

(RTTNews) - European stocks edged lower on Tuesday as investors looked ahead to Thursday's European Central Bank (ECB) meeting and the release of the all-important U.S. employment report on Friday for directional cues.

In economic releases, Germany's unemployment rate remained unchanged in April, according to the results of the labor force survey, published by Destatis earlier today.

The unemployment rate held steady at adjusted 3.2 percent in April.

The number of unemployed decreased only 1,000 or 0.1 percent to 1.42 million. The jobless rate rose to 3.2 percent from 3.1 percent last year.

Elsewhere, data showed U.K. retail sales grew only moderately in May despite a strong bank holiday weekend.

According to data released by the British Retail Consortium, total retail sales grew 0.7 percent on a yearly basis compared to the 3.9 percent increase seen in the same period last year.

The pan European STOXX 600 was down 0.7 percent at 516.11 after closing up 0.3 percent on Monday.

The German DAX fell 0.9 percent, France's CAC 40 shed 0.8 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was down 0.7 percent.

Oil majors BP, Shell, Eni and TotalEnergies fell 2-4 percent as oil extended losses from a four-month low on worries about rising supply later in the year.

Danish shipping group Maersk rose about 1 percent after raising its annual profit guidance.

British American Tobacco fell 1.3 percent. The cigarette maker said it expects first-half revenue and adjusted profit from operations to be down by low-single digits on an organic, constant currency basis.

Low-cost airline Wizz Air Holdings dropped about 1 percent despite revealing a 2.1 percent jump in passenger bookings and a slight increase in load factor for May.

Vistry Group shed 1 percent after it agreed terms with Blackstone Real Estate and Regis Group for the acquisition of a portfolio of new build homes totaling a gross development value of approximately 580 million pounds.

Credit Agricole SA shares declined 1.3 percent. The French lender announced that its unit Indosuez Wealth Management has finalized the acquisition of Bank Degroof Petercam. The financial terms of the deal were not released.