European Stocks Close Lower As Markets Assess Rate Moves, Earnings

(RTTNews) - European stocks closed weak on Friday with investors reacting to corporate earnings announcements, and assessing the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve's interest rate decisions. Weak commodity prices, geopolitical tensions, and the likely impact of Donald Trump's protectionist policies on global economy weighed on sentiment.

Political turmoil in Germany hurt as well. Germany's opposition leader Friedrich Merz has accused Chancellor Olaf Scholz of seeking to delay an early election until March purely for party political advantage.

Merz not only rejected Scholz's approach and reiterated his demand for a January vote, given that Europe's biggest economy urgently needs additional measures to restore meaningful growth.

China's top legislative body - the National People's Congress (NPC) - approved the State Council's proposal to increase local government debt limit by $838 billion after a week-long session.

There was some disappointment as the hotly anticipated stimulus was not as broad or immediate as initially presumed.

The pan European Stoxx 600 ended down 0.65%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 closed down 0.84%, Germany's DAX settled lower by 0.76% and France's CAC 40 shed 1.17%, while Switzerland's SMI lost 1%.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain and Sweden closed weak.

Denmark, Greece, Portugal, Russia and Turkiye ended higher.

In the UK market, Vistry Group shares tanked 15.5%. The British housebuilder announced today that it has revised down its expectations for annual adjusted profit before tax because of issues in its South Division, adjustments in other regions, and reduced expectations for completions.

Antofagasta ended down 6.6%. Glencore, Rio Tinto, Marks & Spencer, Prudential and Anglo American Plc lost 4.3 to 5%. HSBC Holdings, Sainsbury (J), Lloyds Banking Group, JD Sports Fashion, Barratt Redrow, BP, Persimmon and Mondi closed down 2 to 3.6%.

IAG rallied more than 7% after reporting a bigger-than-expected quarterly profit. Endeavour Mining climbed 4.25%.

AstraZenecal gained about 2% after the Phase III WAYPOINT study of AstraZeneca and Amgen's Tezspire in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps met its both co-primary endpoints.

IHG, BT Group, Pearson, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Intertek Group, Entain, Relx, Unite Group and Segro gained 1 to 3%.

In the German market, BASF lost about 5%. Daimler Truck Holding ended lower by nearly 4%. BMW, Deutsche Bank, Mercedes-Benz, Siemens, Volkswagen, Continental, Sartorius and Adidas lost 2 to 3.1%.

Siemens Healthineers, Porsche, Bayer, Commerzbank and Infineon closed down 1 to 1.4%.

Vonovia rallied about 3%. Siemens Energy closed up 2.1% and Zalando climbed 2%. Fresenius Medical Care, HeidelbergCement, Deutsche Telekom and Symrise also ended notably higher.

In the French market, Kering tumbled nearly 8%. Hermes International, Stellantis, LVMH, L'Oreal and Teleperformance lost 3 to 4%.

ArcelorMittal, Edenred, STMicroElectronics, Airbus Group, TotalEnergies, Safran and Publicis Groupe also ended notably lower.

On the economic front, France's trade deficit widened to a near one-year high in September, data from customs office showed. The trade deficit increased to EUR 8.3 billion in September from EUR 7.7 billion in the previous month. Economists had forecast the trade deficit to narrow to EUR 7.0 billion in September.

Exports posted a monthly fall of 1.4%, while imports dropped only 0.3%. Year-on-year, exports were down 3.4% and imports decreased 4.4% in September, data showed.