European Stocks Close Lower On Weak Economic Data

(RTTNews) - European stocks closed weak on Wednesday, weighed down by data showing a drop in eurozone economic sentiment in the month of December, and decline in German retail sales and factory orders.

Markets also awaited the release of the minutes from the Federal Reserve's most recent monetary policy meeting due later today, and U.S. jobs data due later in the week.

The pan European Stoxx 600 fell 0.19%. Germany's DAX edged down 0.07% and France's CAC 40 closed down 0.49%, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 crept up 0.07%. Switzerland's SMI gained 0.38%.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Turkiye closed weak.

Denmark and Russia ended higher, while Belgium, Greece and Sweden closed flat.

In the UK market, Barratt Redrow, St. James's Place, United Utilities, JD Sports Fashion, Legal & General, British Land, M&G and Prudential closed lower by 3 to 5.1%.

Shell drifted down 1.4% after the company trimmed its LNG production outlook for the fourth quarter and warned that trading results for its chemicals and oil products division are expected to be significantly lower than in the third quarter.

EasyJet, Lloyds Banking Group, Aviva, Persimmon, Kingfisher, Next, Halma, Segro and Hiscox were among the other major losers.

BAE Systems climbed more than 3%. Pershing Square Holdings gained nearly 2.5%, while Standard Chartered, Smith (DS), Relx, HSBC Holdings, Antofagasta, Reckitt Benckiser, Compass Group, Convatec Group and Haleon ended higher by 1 to 2%.

In the French market, Eurofins Scientific, STMicroElectronics and Vivendi ended more than 4.5% down.

Stellantis closed down by about 2.5%. The company announced that its racing division, Stellantis Motorsport, is collaborating with Intel Automotive, affiliated to chip maker Intel Corp., to be its technical partner in Formula E. Under the deal, the companies will work to accelerate the development of technologies specific to Formula E, in the electric series.

Teleperformance, Kering, Capgemini, L'Oreal, Vinci and LVMH lost 1 to 2.5%.

Thales rallied about 4% and Edenred gained nearly 4%. Societe Generale climbed about 2%.

In the German market, Siemens Energy lost more than 5%. Infineon closed nearly 4% down. Brenntag, BMW, RWE, Vonovia, Zalando, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, Puma, Daimler Truck Holding, Merck, BASF, Fresenius Medical Care and Sartorius lost 1 to 2.7%.

Rheinmetall gained about 5%. HeidelbergCement climbed 2.5%, while MTU Aero Engies, Deutsche Boerse and Henkel gained 1 to 1.7%.

TeamViewer shares gained more than 8% after the company reported a revenue at 671 million euros for the year 2024, up 9% compared to 626.7 million euros in 2023. The higher revenue was due to stronger-than-expected full-year billings of around 700 million euros, particularly from large enterprise and frontline deals in the last weeks of the fourth quarter.

Earlier, the company had expected to register its annual revenue in a range of 662 million euros to 668 million euros.

On the economic front, Euro area economic confidence deteriorated to the lowest in more than a year in December as the improvement in services sentiment was offset by weaker morale in industry, construction and among consumers.

The economic sentiment index dropped more-than-expected to 93.7 in December from 95.6 in the previous month.

Eurozone producer prices decline moderated in November amid a slowdown in the fall of energy costs. Producer prices registered an annual fall of 1.2% after a 3.3% decrease in October.

Data from Destatis showed retail sales in Germany increased 2.5% in November over the same month in the previous year. On monthly basis, retail sales dropped 0.6% in November following an upwardly revised 0.4% rise in October.

In the whole year of 2024, retail sales advanced 1.3% in real terms from the previous year. Although the retail sales dropped 0.4% in the first half, this was compensated by an increase of 3% in the second half of the year.

In nominal terms, retail sales registered an increase of 2.7% in 2024, data showed.

A report from the Federal Statistical Office said factory orders in Germany shrank by 5.4% month-on-month in November after a 1.5% decline in October.

A report from statistical office INSEE said French consumer confidence unexpectedly fell in December to the lowest level in a year, coming in at 89.0, from a score of 90.0 in November.

France's trade balance narrowed to 7.1 billion euros in November, from a downwardly revised 7.5 billion euros in October.

France's current account deficit decreased to 1.7 billion euros in November from a downwardly revised 1.9 billion euros in the previous month. Exports increased to 50.10 billion euros, while imports rose to 57.186 billion euros.