European Shares Decline As Inflation Edges Up In April

(RTTNews) - European stocks were moving lower on Tuesday as trading resumed after a three-day holiday break.

Growth worries resurfaced after data showed China's manufacturing activity contracted in April.

Elsewhere, a measure of U.S. manufacturing contracted for the sixth consecutive month in April but pulled off a three-year low as new orders improved slightly and employment rebounded.

Meanwhile, preliminary data from Eurostat showed earlier today that headline inflation rate in the euro zone rose slightly to 7.0 percent in April, after having dropped to 6.9 percent the previous month.

The pan-European STOXX 500 was down 0.4 percent at 465.24 ahead of the Fed and ECB meetings due this week.

The German DAX slipped 0.3 percent and France's CAC 40 shed half a percent while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was marginally higher, reversing early losses.

The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to raise its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points on Wednesday despite signs of an impending slowdown.

Fed chief Jerome Powell's post-decision press conference will be closely watched for comments around the future of monetary policy.

The European Central Bank (ECB) is widely expected to raise rates for a seventh straight meeting on Thursday and the big question is whether it will be a 25 or 50 bps rate hike.

Oil and gas stocks led losses, with BP Plc tumbling 4.5 percent after slowing the pace of share buybacks.

British lender HSBC soared nearly 5 percent after tripling its quarterly profit. Iron ore pellet producer Ferrexpo gained about 1 percent on news its chief executive Jim North will step down after nine years with the company.

Restaurant Group jumped 12.3 percent after saying its performance for the first fourth months of 2023 continued to be very encouraging.

Subsea-equipment rental group Ashtead rallied 2.2 percent on share buyback news.

German real estate investor Patrizia fell about 1 percent after it appointed Asoka Wöhrmann as new chief executive-designate of the company and Slava Shafir as new chief operating officer.