European Stocks Close Lower On Uncertainty About Interest Rate Outlook

(RTTNews) - European stocks closed lower on Thursday after data showing a bigger than expected increase in U.S. producer prices led to some uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates.

Stocks found some support early on in the session on hopes the European Central Bank will likely lower borrowing costs in the spring.

"It's perhaps more probable in June — we are very pragmatic and will see depending on the data," Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau said on France Info radio.

The Labor Department's data said the producer price index for final demand climbed by 0.6% in February after rising by 0.3% in January. Producer prices were expected to rise by 0.3% in February.

The report said the annual rate of producer price growth accelerated to 1.6% in February from a revised 1% increase in January.

A report from the Commerce Department showed retail sales in the U.S. climbed by 0.6% in February after slumping by a revised 1.1% in the previous month. Retail prices were forecast to rise by 0.8% in February.

The pan European Stoxx 600 ended down by 0.18%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 drifted down 0.37% and Germany's DAX settled lower by 0.11%, while France's CAC 40 gained 0.29%. Switzerland's SMI ended 0.59% down.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain and Turkiye closed weak.

Denmark, Greece and Poland ended higher, while Iceland, Norway and Sweden closed flat.

In the UK market, Anglo American Plc, Natwest Group, Segro, St. James's Place, Whitbread, Ocado Group and Haleon lost 2 to 6%.

Endeavour Mining, Intertek, Barclays Group, Prudential, Bunzl, WPP, Scottish Mortgage, Rio Tinto, Rolls-Royce Holdings, IHP, Antofagast and Schrodders also ended notably lower.

Convatec Group, Informa, Weir Holdings, Berkeley, Smurfit Kappa Group, Admiral, Ashtead, Melrose Industreis and Centrica gained 1 to 2.5%.

In the German market, Zalando, RWE, Infineon and BMW lost 2.7 to 3.4%. BASF, Continental, Henkel, Vonovia, Bayer, Fresenius Medical Care, Covestro, Volkswagen, Beiersdorf and Fresenius ended lower by 1 to 2%.

Siemens Energy, Adidas, E.ON and Daimler Truck Holding gained 2 to 3.5%. Porsche gained nearly 2%. Sartorius, Commerzbank, Siemens Healthineers and Deutsche Boerse also ended notably higher.

Encavis AG soared more than 25% as private equity firm KKR launched a 2.8 billion-euro ($3.06 billion) takeover offer for the German independent power producer.

In Paris, Vinci, Eurofins Scientific, WorldLine, STMicroElectronics, ArcelorMittal, Societe Generale and Saint Gobain lost 1 to 2.2%. BNP Paribas also ended notably lower.

Publicis Groupe, Teleperformance, Hermes International, Thales, TotalEnergies, Veolia, Legrand and Alstom gained 1 to 2%.