European Shares Extend Losses On Oil, Bond Market Jitters

European stocks traded lower on Thursday to extend losses from the previous session, as a slew of downbeat earnings updates added to jitters around the Middle East war and rising bond yields.

Bond yields surged in Europe, with Germany’s 10-year government bond yield, the benchmark for the euro area, rising 3 basis points (bps) to 2.95 percent ahead of Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech later in the day.

On a light day on the economic front, the European Central Bank reported that the euro area current account surplus increased in August driven by the sharp rise in the visible trade surplus.

The pan European STOXX 600 fell 0.9 percent to 440.85 after losing 1.1 percent on Wednesday.

The German DAX slipped 0.4 percent, France’s CAC 40 was down 0.9 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 fell 1 percent.

Nestle shares fell 2.2 percent after the Swiss consumer giant posted lower-than-expected nine-month sales growth.

Finnish telecom gear group Nokia tumbled 3.7 percent after posting a drop in its third-quarter sales and announcing job cuts.

McBride shares jumped 22 percent. The British household and personal products business said that the favorable trading environment and momentum of the second half of fiscal 2023 has continued into the first quarter of fiscal 2024.

Retail-investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown slumped 4.6 percent after new client growth slowed during the first quarter.

Gold miner declined 2.4 percent after pretax profit and revenue fell in the third quarter.

French carmaker Renault plunged over 7 percent after currency depreciations in Turkey and Argentina weighed heavily on the pace of sales growth in the third quarter.

Pernod Ricard soared 5 percent after the spirts maker forecast higher sales in fiscal year 2023-24.

Germany’s Infineon Technologies AG fell nearly 2 percent. The semiconductor company has appointed Elke Reichart as its new Chief Digital Transformation Officer, effective November 1.

Merck KGaA jumped 4.5 percent. The science and technology major said it expects to return to growth during fiscal 2024, and continued growth also beyond 2025.

Biopharmaceutical firm Sartorius surged 5.4 percent after unveiling financial results for the first nine months of the year.

Frankfurt-listed shares of Tesla were down 5.1 percent after CEO Elon Musk sounded a pessimistic note about the economy on an earnings call.

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