European Shares Extend Losses Ahead Of Fed Meeting

(RTTNews) - European stocks declined on Tuesday as investors awaited the Federal Reserve's rate decision due Wednesday and the accompany statement for clues about the outlook for further rate hikes.

The Bank of England and the European Central Bank are also scheduled to announce their rate decisions this week.

In economic releases, German retail sales plunged 6.4 percent in December from last year, much sharper than economists' forecast of -1.8 percent, data published by Destatis showed suggesting weak consumer spending even during the Christmas season.

Separate data showed that French economic expansion slowed in the fourth quarter of 2022, in line with economists' expectations.

Elsewhere, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said the British economy will shrink by 0.6 percent in 2023, rather than grow slightly as previously predicted, reflecting high energy prices and factors such as high inflation.

The pan-European STOXX 600 dropped half a percent to 452.07 after declining 0.2 percent on Monday.

The German DAX, France's CAC 40 index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 were down between 0.4 percent and 0.8 percent.

Tele2 AB slumped 4.2 percent after saying it expects low single-digit growth of end-user service revenue and underlying Ebitdaal in 2023.

UniCredit jumped nearly 7 percent after posting record profit for the fourth quarter of 2022 and pledging to return 5.3 billion euros (S$7.48 billion) to investors. UBS tumbled 3 percent after posting a fall in revenue.

Ricardo gained about 1 percent after keeping its FY guidance unchanged.

Leoni AG shares were down about 1 percent. The cable and harnessing maker said that its Chief Executive Officer, Aldo Kamper, will be leaving the company effective 31 March 2.