Major European Markets Fail To Hold Early Gains, Settle Just Marginally Up

(RTTNews) - European stocks pared most of their gains and closed just slightly higher on Monday with investors lightening commitments, preferring to wait for more directional clues.

Worries about China's growth continued to weigh on sentiment. Investors were also concerned about the outlook for interest rates following recent hawkish comments from some Fed officials, and a mixed batch of economic data.

Investors looked ahead to the upcoming Jackson Hole Symposium, and awaited some key earnings updates.

In China, the People's Bank of China today lowered its one-year loan prime rate by 0.10 basis points to 3.45%, but left the five-year rate unchanged at 4.2%.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech at the annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Friday, is likely to provide some clues about the central bank's future interest rate moves.

The pan European Stoxx 600 edged up 0.05%. Germany's DAX gained 0.19% and France's CAC 40 climbed 0.47% and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 edged down 0.06%. Switzerland's SMI ended 0.09%.

Among other markets in Europe, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Iceland, Norway, Portugal, Russia and Turkiye closed higher.

Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands and Sweden ended weak, while Austria, Poland and Spain closed flat.

In the UK market, Pershing Square Holdings rallied about 2.3%. IHG, Antofagasta, BP, Glencore, JD Sports Fashion, Tesco, B&M European Value Retail and Convatec closed higher by 0.9 to 1.2%.

Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon, Ocado Group and Berkeley Group Holdings lost 3.2 to 4.3%.

Barratt Developments, Land Securities, Unite Group, DCC, RightMove, United Utilities, Prudential and Aviva lost 1.2 to 2.8%.

In the German market, Continental climbed nearly 6%. MTU Aero Engines, Commerzbank, BMW and Daimler Truck Holding gained 1 to 1.6%.

Vonovia drifted down 2.6%. Sartorius and Siemens Energy both shed about 1.8%, while Fresenius Medical Care, Covestro, HeidelbergCement, E.ON, Deutsche Bank and Merck lost 0.7 to 1.1%.

In Paris, Renault ended nearly 2% up. Stellantis gained 1.8%, while Kering, Airbus Group, Capgemini, Engie, Thales, TotalEnergies and STMicroElectronics advanced 1 to 1.2%.

Unibail Rodamco, WorldLine and Legrand lost about 1.3%, 1.1% and 0.6%, respectively.

In economic news, data released by Destatis showed Germany's producer price inflation dropped for the first time since November 2020, falling by 6% on an annual basis in July, compared to a rise of 0.1% in the previous month. Markets were expecting a decline of 5.1%.