European Stocks Close Broadly Lower After Cautious Session

(RTTNews) - European stocks closed lower on Thursday despite a positive lead from U.S. where stocks rebounded on bargain hunting. Investors continued to assess the outlook for interest rates, and digested the latest batch of U.S. and European economic data.

Investors also looked ahead to the Fed's preferred inflation gauge on Friday for direction.

The pan European Stoxx 600 ended down 0.21%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 and Germany's DAX both ended lower by 0.27%, and France's CAC drifted down 0.16%, while Switzerland's SMI edged down 0.11%.

Among other markets in Europe, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Netherlands, Norway, Russia and Sweden closed weak.

Czech Republic, Denmark, Iceland, Portugal and Turkiye ended higher, while Austria, Poland and Spain closed flat.

In the UK market, Burberry Group ended more than 4% down. United Utilities, Just Eat Takeaway.com, Pennon and British American Tobacco ended lower by 2 to 3%.

Severn Trent, Admiral Group, ITV, Segro, Entain, Convatec Group, British Land Company, Kingfisher and Standard Chartered also ended notably lower.

Carnival rallied about 3.5%. Vodafone Group gained 2.3% and Easyjet advanced 1.8%. Melrose Industries, Anglo American Plc and Spirax-Sarco Engineering posted moderate gains.

In the German market, Sartorius declined nearly 2.5%. SAP, Volkswagen, Symrise, Zalando, BMW, Adidas, Daimler Truck Holding and Mercedes-Benz ended down 0.6 to 1.2%.

Commerzbank, Fresenius Medical Care, Brenntag, Airbus Group and MTU Aero Engines gained 0.4 to 1.4%.

In Paris, Kering, Unibail Rodamco and Renault lost 1.2 to 1.4%. ArcelorMittal, WorldLine and Carrefour shed nearly 1%, while Teleperformance climbed nearly 4%.

On the economic front, the UK budget deficit widened in the financial year to November to the second highest level on record, the Office for National Statistics reported.

In the financial year to November, government borrowing increased by GBP 24.4 billion from the same period last year to GBP 116.4 billion. This was the second highest financial year-to-November borrowing on record.

UK retail sales declined more sharply in December despite festive period, the Distributive Trades Survey results from the Confederation of British Industry showed.

The retail sales balance declined to -32% in December from -11% in November. The decline marked the eighth consecutive reduction in sales volume. Sales are forecast to decline even more sharply next month with the balance falling to -41%.

French manufacturers' confidence improved and returned to its long-term average in December after staying stable in the previous two months, monthly data from the statistical office INSEE revealed.

The manufacturing sentiment index rose to a 5-month high of 100 in December from 99 in the previous month. Meanwhile, economists had expected confidence to fall to 98.0.