European Shares Tumble After Fed Meeting; BoE Meet Eyed

(RTTNews) - European stocks fell sharply on Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve fully reaffirmed its commitment to fight inflation and signaled it was "very premature" to think about pausing the tightening cycle.

Sentiment was also dented after China affirmed that a zero-tolerance approach continues to be the overall strategy in tackling COVID-19.

Meanwhile, the Bank of England is scheduled to announce its monetary policy decision at 8.00 AM ET. Markets widely expect the BoE to raise the Bank Rate to 3.00 percent from 2.25 percent. This would be the biggest hike since 1989.

The monetary policy committee's economic analysis and inflation projections are also due.

The pan European STOXX 600 fell 1.2 percent to 408.55 after declining 0.3 percent on Wednesday.

The German DAX dropped 0.9 percent, France's CAC 40 index gave up around 1 percent and the U. K's FTSE 100 was down half a percent.

Tech stocks were broadly lower, with STMicroelectronics and Infineon falling 1-2 percent.

Flutter Entertainment slumped nearly 4 percent after Australia's financial crime watchdog ordered an audit of Sportsbet, an online betting house operated by Flutter and British gambling firm Bet365.

Danish IT consultancy firm Netcompany jumped 17 percent after posting strong third-quarter earnings.

British industrial distributor RS Group lost over 11 percent after an announcement that its CEO is taking a leave of absence.

French insurer Axa gained 1 percent after reporting a marginal rise in revenue for the first nine months of the year.

Belgian chemicals company Solvay fell over 1 percent after it announced a joint venture with Mexico's Orbia to produce battery materials in the United States.

German energy giant Uniper declined 2 percent as it reported a record 40 billion-euro ($39.3 billion) net loss.

Hugo Boss tumbled 3.5 percent despite the luxury fashion brand raising its sales and profit outlook for the year.

Similarly, automaker BMW lost 3 percent despite confirming its FY22 outlook.