Approximately thirty minutes after the opening of European markets, losses ranged between 0.14% in Milan (FTSE MIB) and 0.49% in Paris (CAC 40). Madrid (IBEX 35) fell by 0.37%, Frankfurt (DAX) slipped 0.18%, and London’s market (FTSE 100) dropped 0.17%.
Lisbon reversed its initial trend, where it slightly gained 0.04%, subsequently declining 0.45% to 7,767.48 points.
European stocks are retreating amid various inflationary readings from major eurozone economies, coinciding with the release of US inflation data which might suggest how swiftly the American Fed may adjust interest rates downward.
France’s annual inflation fell by a tenth of a percentage point in August, to 0.9%, mainly due to a slowdown in service price increases, particularly in transportation, as reported by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) with provisional data.
The National Statistics Institute (INE) is releasing the fast estimate of the Consumer Price Index in Portugal for August today.
Tokyo’s stock exchange closed lower today, with the main index, the Nikkei, falling 0.26% to 42,718.47 points.
The secondary index, the Topix, also ended the session down by 0.47%, at 3,075.18 points.
The Nikkei index reflects the unweighted average of the top 225 stocks on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, while the Topix index aggregates the values of the 1,600 largest listed companies.
Conversely, the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.37% today, reaching 3,857.93 points.
On the previous day, Wall Street closed on a high, driven by a better-than-expected revision of US second-quarter GDP and the results of Nvidia, a leading American semiconductor company.
After a hesitant start, the broader S&P 500 (+0.32%) and the industrial Dow Jones (+0.16%) indices reached new highs at closing, rising to 6,501.86 points and 45,636.90 points, respectively. The Nasdaq technology index rose 0.53% to 21,705.16 points.
The price of a barrel of Brent crude, a benchmark for Europe, for October delivery ended Thursday up 0.84%, at $68.62.
The euro strengthened against the dollar, approaching the $1.17 mark, after it was announced that all members of the ECB’s Governing Council favored maintaining interest rates at 2%.
Economic sentiment slightly declined in the eurozone in August, yet employment expectations improved, as revealed by data released Thursday by the European Commission services.
