European Shares Mixed With Inflation Data In Focus

(RTTNews) - European stocks traded mixed on Wednesday as investors reacted to cautious comments from Federal Reserve officials on the rate outlook.

The downside, if any, remained capped in the wake of softer inflation data from the U.K. and Germany.

The pan European STOXX 600 was down 0.2 percent at 476.10 after closing 0.4 percent higher on Tuesday.

The German DAX and France's CAC 40 both dipped around 0.3 percent, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was up 0.8 percent.

Dutch lender ING edged down slightly after an announcement that it will stop financing oil and gas exploration and production by 2040.

Telefonica jumped 4.3 percent after the Spanish government said it would buy a 10 percent stake in the telecoms giant.

Energy stocks traded higher, with BP Plc and Shell both rising around 1.4 percent, as oil prices surged by over a dollar per barrel on fears of supply disruptions.

Petrofac, a provider of services to the energy industry, soared 42 percent after winning a $1.4 billion contract under its multi-year deal with TenneT.

Indivior rallied 2.4 percent after settling a patent dispute with Actavis Laboratories.

German copper producer Aurubis fell over 1 percent as it confirmed a sharp 34 percent fall in earnings in its 2022/23 fiscal year end September.

Deutsche Post declined more than 2 percent after U.S. peer FedEx cut its full-year revenue forecast.

On the economic front, more companies in Germany wanted to raise prices in the coming months, suggesting that the current easing trend in inflation is likely to stall, according to the results of a survey by the ifo institute.

The ifo price expectations rose to 19.7 points in December from 18.1 points in November. The reading indicates the percentage of companies that intend to increase prices on balance.

Meanwhile, Germany's producer prices declined for the fifth straight month in November due to cheaper energy costs, Destatis reported.

Producer prices dropped 7.9 percent year-over-year in November, slower than the 11.0 percent fall in October. Economists had expected a decline of 7.5 percent.

Germany's consumer sentiment is set to strengthen at the start of next year amid improvements in both income and economic expectations, and the willingness to buy, survey results from the market research group GfK and the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions (NIM) showed.

The forward-looking GfK consumer confidence index rose to -25.1 from a revised -27.6 in December. Economists had forecast a reading of -27.0.

Elsewhere, data showed U.K. consumer price inflation reached its lowest level in more than two years in November, increased bets for interest-rate cut next year by the Bank of England (BoE).

The consumer price index showed an annual increase of 3.9 percent, slower than the 4.6 percent rise in October. This was the weakest inflation since September 2021 and also below economists' forecast of 4.4 percent.

Another report revealed that input prices decreased 2.6 percent annually, the same pace of decline as seen in October.

Factory gate prices dropped 0.2 percent following a revised fall of 0.3 percent in October.