European stocks fell on Friday as investors digested a deluge of earnings and economic reports.
Investors also looked ahead to next week’s Federal Reserve meeting for clues on whether a pivot on the pace of rate hikes is on the table.
The pan European STOXX 600 dropped 0.8 percent to 406.9 following disappointing earnings results from U.S. tech companies.
Amazon offered a gloomy view of its financial future and Apple signaled slower growth ahead while Intel announced lower-than-expected earnings guidance for the full fiscal.
The German DAX fell 0.9 percent, France’s CAC 40 index slipped half a percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 was down 0.6 percent.
Swiss Re AG shares fell 3 percent after the Swiss reinsurer reported a net loss in its third quarter and the first nine months of fiscal 2022.
Italian energy group ENI gained 1.7 percent after profits in the third quarter beat expectations.
Miners Anglo American, Antofagasta and Glencore fell 2-3 percent in London as commodity prices dropped on worries about China’s expanding COVID-19 restrictions.
NatWest plunged 8 percent as the high street lender missed estimates for profit in the third quarter amid increased impairment provisions.
British Airways owner IAG lost about 3 percent despite revenue exceeding pre-pandemic levels.
French food group Danone rallied 2.2 percent after raising its 2022 revenue growth forecast.
Sanofi gained 1.9 percent. The drug maker forecast faster earnings growth this year after reporting strong sales in the third quarter.
Air France KLM plummeted 10 percent after the airline lowered its full-year capacity guidance.
Safran gained about 1 percent. The jet engine maker and aerospace supplier raised its 2022 revenue and cashflow targets.
Porsche AG tumbled 2.4 percent despite the luxury carmaker reporting higher operating profit and sales in its first nine months of fiscal 2022. Further, the company confirmed its fiscal 2022 targets.
Volkswagen gave up 2.6 percent after saying it expected deliveries to be around the same as last year.
In economic releases, economic sentiment in the eurozone deteriorated again in October, weighed by high inflation and a darkening outlook for the economy, the European Commission said.
The corresponding indicator dropped to 92.5 in October from a revised reading of 93.6 in September.
Germany’s economy expanded unexpectedly in the third quarter underpinned by private consumption, flash data from Destatis showed.
The biggest euro area economy logged a quarterly growth of 0.3 percent, confounding expectations for a contraction of 0.2 percent. The pace of growth was faster than the 0.1 percent rise posted in the second quarter.
The French economy posted a slower growth in the third quarter, thanks to a stagnation in household spending due to high inflation, and the weak foreign demand, preliminary data from the statistical office INSEE revealed.
Gross domestic product grew 0.2 percent from the second quarter, when the economy expanded 0.5 percent. The pace of growth came in line with economists’ expectations.
Separately, flash data from the statistical office revealed that French consumer price inflation accelerated at a faster-than-expected pace to a new record high in October amid higher costs of energy, food, and manufactured goods.
Consumer price inflation rose to 6.2 percent in October from 5.6 percent in September while economists had forecast inflation to increase slightly to 5.7 percent. This was the strongest inflation since 1985.
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