European Stocks Close Weak On Interest Rate Concerns, Political Uncertainty

(RTTNews) - European stocks closed weak on Tuesday as uncertainty about the outlook for interest rate and the change of guard in the U.K. and France after the recently concluded elections in the two countries rendered the mood cautious, prompting investors lighten commitments.

A slew of disappointing corporate updates weighed on sentiment. Fed chair Jerome Powell's statement that the central bank does not plan to reduce interest rates until it is confident that inflation is sustainably moving toward 2%, weighed as well.

Traders also awaited comments from European Central Bank board (ECB) member Piero Cipollone for further direction.

The pan European Stoxx 600 fell 0.9%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 ended down 0.66%, Germany's DAX dropped 1.28% and France's CAC 40 ended down 1.56%, while Switzerland's SMI edged down 0.12%.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Turkiye ended weak.

Poland closed higher, while Greece and Portugal settled flat.

In the UK market, BP ended lower by about 4% after the company warned of "significantly lower" refining margins and flagged impairment of $1 billion to $2 billion on the value of a plant in Germany.

Burberry Group, Next, Persimmon, Melrose Industries, B&M European Value Retail, Frasers Group, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Associated British Foods, Barratt Developments, Barclays, Marks & Spencer, Centrica, Lloyds Banking Group and Natwest Group lost 2 to 4.5%.

Severn Trent rallied 2.5%. Pershing Square Holdings, BT Group, Smith & Nephew, Haleon, Entain, Endeavour Mining, Halma and United Utilities gained 1 to 1.8%.

In the German market, Mercedes-Benz ended down nearly 4%. Infineon, Bayer, Siemens, Continental, HeidelbergCement, BASF, Deutsche Post, MTU Aero Engines, SAP, Commerzbank, Zalando, Qiagen, RWE, Adidas, Fresenius and Deutsche Telekom lost 1 to 2.5%.

Covestro, Rheinmetall and BMW posted moderate gains.

In the French market, Dassault Systemes ended more than 5% down. The stock fell as the company cut its 2024 earnings target.

Saint Gobain, Capgemini, BNP Paribas, Airbus Group, Societe Generale, Vinci, TotalEnergies, ArcelorMittal, Bouygues, STMicroElectronics, Essilor and Legrand ended down 2 to 3.5%.

In economic news, UK retail sales declined in June as the cold weather in the first half of the year weighed on consumer spending, the British Retail Consortium said on Tuesday.

Total retail sales fell 0.2% in June from the previous year. BRC Chief Executive Helen Dickinson said the sales of weather sensitive categories such as clothing and footwear, and DIY and gardening were hit particularly hard.

Appearing before the Senate Banking Committee, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said more good data would strengthen the central bank's confidence inflation is moving sustainably toward its 2% target and lead to a potential interest rate cut.

"The Committee has stated that we do not expect it will be appropriate to reduce the target range for the federal funds rate until we have gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2%," Powell said in prepared remarks.

"Incoming data for the first quarter of this year did not support such greater confidence," he continued. "The most recent inflation readings, however, have shown some modest further progress, and more good data would strengthen our confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2%."