European equities extended their decline on the 1st, as eurozone inflation accelerated to its highest level in three years, dampening investor sentiment amid concerns over additional rate hikes by the European Central Bank (ECB). At the same time, buying in individual names on company-specific catalysts helped limit the downside.<\/p>\n
The pan-European STOXX 600 index closed nearly flat at 651.35 points, up 0.04% from the previous session. On a country-by-country basis, Germany’s DAX index fell 1.10%, France’s CAC 40 slipped 0.39%, Italy’s FTSE MIB declined 1.33%, Spain’s IBEX 35 dropped 0.75%, and the UK’s FTSE 100 lost 0.32%, with major indices broadly lower across the board.<\/p>\n
The persistent sell-off in bonds weighed heavily on equities. Crude oil prices climbed as fighting reignited in the Middle East, pushing global bond yields through key technical thresholds. Germany’s 30-year government bond yield reached its highest level in 15 years, while France’s 30-year yield rose to levels not seen since 2008. Brent crude traded around $92 per barrel (approximately \u00a514,000), and the energy sector index gained 1.4%.<\/p>\n
Hawkish remarks last week from Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh also contributed to spreading rate-hike expectations across markets. According to LSEG data, a majority of traders now expect the ECB to raise rates at its September meeting.<\/p>\n
Among individual stocks, UK-based household goods and pharmaceutical maker Reckitt Benckiser Group surged 4.44%. The rally came after a jury ruled in the company’s favor in litigation alleging it failed to warn that its premature-infant formula could cause a fatal intestinal disease. An analyst upgrade also provided additional support to the share price.<\/p>\n
French industrial gas giant Air Liquide rose 2.15%, buoyed by reports that Elliott Investment Management, the well-known activist investor, had acquired a stake in the company and was applying pressure to improve profit margins.<\/p>\n
Market participants’ attention was focused on the eurozone’s August consumer price index, which was scheduled for release later in the day. The inflation reading serves as a critical clue for gauging the ECB’s future rate trajectory. With expectations mounting that eurozone inflation is accelerating, concerns over a prolonged rate-hike cycle remain deeply entrenched in equity markets, capping upside momentum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"European equities extended their decline on the 1st, as eurozone inflation accelerated to its highest level in three…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[21355],"tags":[47246,22499,28234,47245,47248,47247,32055,21376,21400,2028,47249],"class_list":["post-115463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reckitt-benckiser","tag-air-liquide","tag-elliott-investment-management","tag-european-central-bank","tag-european-major-stock-markets","tag-frances-cac-40-index","tag-germanys-dax-index","tag-kevin-warsh","tag-reckitt-benckiser","tag-reckitt-benckiser-group","tag-stoxx-600","tag-uks-ftse-100-index"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117198229484777256","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}