Inflation Woes Drag European Markets Into The Red

(RTTNews) - The major European markets continued their recent downward trend on Wednesday, shrugging off a higher opening by moving quickly into the red and eventually finishing solidly lower.

A record inflation reading was main culprit, fueling fears of continued and painful tightening measures and concern over the outlook for interest rates.

Eurozone inflation hit a new record in August, reflecting the intensifying cost of living crisis, and added further pressure on the European Central Bank to tighten policy more aggressively as soon as next week.

The CAC 40 in France stretched its losing streak to five sessions, slumping 85.12 points or 1.37 percent to finish at 6,125.10. London's FTSE was down for the third straight session after giving away 77.48 points or 1.05 percent to close at 7,284.15. Germany's DAX ended weak for the third time in four sessions after sinking 126.18 points or 0.97 percent to end at 12,834.96.

In France, Schneider Electric plunged 3.12 percent, while Airbus tanked 2,71 percent, Compagnie de Saint-Gobain tumbled 2.24 percent, Engie slumped 2.06 percent, Carrefour climbed 1.09 percent, Sanofi sank 0.51 percent, Credit Agricole shed 0.33 percent, BNP Paribas rose 0.20 percent, Vivendi perked 0.15 percent and Societe Generale rose 0.07 percent.

In London, Shell stumbled 2.12 percent, while BAE Systems retreated 1.75 percent, Rentokil declined 1.59 percent, Rolls-Royce skidded 1.53 percent, Centrica dropped 1.07 percent, Tesco shed 0.92 percent, Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust lost 0.67 percent, Rightmove added 0.66 percent, British American Tobacco and Haleon both fell 0.14 percent and Vodafone eased 0.03 percent.

In Germany, HelloFresh plummeted 4.29 percent, while Volkswagen tanked 2.58 percent, Siemens slumped 2.56 percent, Heidelberg Cement surrendered 1.46 percent, Deutsche Post slumped 1.45 percent, Bayer improved 1.43 percent, Deutsche Bank dropped 0.82 percent, Deutsche Telekom lost 0.32 percent, BASF was down 0.27 percent and Deutsche Borse rose 0.03 percent.

In economic news, Germany's import price inflation slowed for the third month in a row in July but remained at elevated level, data published by Destatis revealed on Wednesday. Import prices logged a double-digit annual growth of 28.9 percent in July.

Germany's unemployment increased in August due to the registration of Ukrainian refugees, the Federal Labor Agency revealed Wednesday. The number of people out of work increased 28,000, as expected, after rising 45,000 in the previous month. In turn, the jobless rate rose slightly to 5.5 percent in August from 5.4 percent in July.

The French economy rebounded as estimated in the second quarter supported by household spending, investment and exports, statistical office Insee showed on Wednesday. Gross domestic product grew 0.5 percent sequentially, reversing the 0.2 percent fall in the first quarter.

Finland's economic growth improved more than initially estimated in the three months ended June, Statistics Finland said on Wednesday. Gross domestic product rose a seasonally and working-day-adjusted 0.9 percent sequentially in the June quarter, faster than the 0.5 percent rise in Q1.