European Stocks Closed Mixed After Cautious Session

(RTTNews) - European stocks turned in a mixed performance on Wednesday with the mood remaining cautious for much of the day's trading session amid uncertainty about the outlook for Fed interest rate cuts and on concerns about near term trend following comments from Jerome Powell that equity prices are fairly highly valued by many measures.

Defense stocks found some support after U.S. President Donald Trump said he believed Ukraine could retake all its land occupied by Russia and that Kyiv should act now.

A few Fed officials, including Michelle Bowman, Raphael Bostic and Austan Goolsbee are concerned about growing risks to the labor market, while others remain primarily worried about the possibility that above-target inflation could be pushed higher by tariffs and other policies.

The pan European Stoxx 600 settled flat. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 and Germany's DAX gained 0.29% and 0.23%, respectively. France's CAC 40 closed down by 0.57%, while Switzerland's SMI closed 1.02% down.

Among other markets in Europe, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Russia, Sweden and Turkiye closed higher.

Czech Republic, Greece, Irelan, Norway, Poland, Portugal and Spain ended weak, while Austria and Netherlands closed flat.

In the UK market, Antofagasta soared 9.3%.

Anglo American Plc climbed 4.7%. Glencore moved up nearly 3%, and Rio Tinto gained about 1.3%.

Babcock International surged 4.3%. BAE Systems, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, BP, Imperial Brands, Airtel Africa, Persimmon, Berkeley Group Holdings, Rio Tinto, Shell, Rentokil Initial and National Grid gained 1 to 2.2%.

Ashtead Group, IMI, Convatec Group, Fresnillo, Burberry Group, The Sage Group, Metlen Energy & Metals, 3i Group and RightMove lost 1 to 2.3%.

In the German market, Covestro, Commerzbank, Rheinmetall, Zalando and Siemens Energy gained 2.3 to 5%. BMW, RWE, Mercedes-Benz also closed with strong gains.

Merck closed down by about 2.7%. Daimler Truck Holding, Symrise, Siemens Healthineers, Beiersdorf, Siemens and Qiagen lost 1 to 2%.

In the French market, Thales, Carrefour and TotalEnergies gained 2 to 2.5%. Kering, Schneider Electric, Legrand and Societe Generale also closed with notable gains.

Shares of multinational technology service and consulting company Atos SE are up 4.7% after the company secured a major European Commission cybersecurity contract for technical operation services.

Hermes International, Stellantis, LVMH, L'Oreal, Saint-Gobain, Essilor, Vinci, Pernod Ricard, Accor and Renault lost 1 to 3.2%.

On the economic front, the Ifo Institute showed that its business Climate Index for Germany fell 1.2 points to 87.7 in September, down from a revised 88.9 in August. The reading marked the lowest since May and the sharpest monthly drop in over a year.

The Expectations Index dropped to 89.7 from 91.4, and the current conditions index declined to 85.7 from 86.4), suggesting uncertainty surrounding US tariff policy has weighed on sentiment, clouding the outlook for Europe's largest economy.