BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - European stocks were moving lower in cautious trade on Tuesday as investors awaited further clarity on the U.S.-China trade talks.
Earlier today, China's Commerce Ministry said in a brief notice that Vice Premier Liu He spoke with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and agreed to continue talks on the Phase 1 deal.
Meanwhile, German consumer confidence is set to improve in December, survey data from market research group GfK showed.
The forward-looking consumer sentiment index rose to 9.7 points, as expected, from 9.6 in November.
Both economic and income expectations showed a marked increase, while propensity to buy remained at a high level despite marginal losses.
'The exceptionally high levels of consumer confidence among German consumers have significantly contributed to preventing a recession in Germany in the third quarter,' Rolf Bürkl, consumer expert at GfK, said.
The pan European Stoxx 600 was down 0.2 percent at 407.35 after climbing 1 percent in the previous session.
The German DAX and France's CAC 40 index were also down around 0.2 percent while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was little changed with a negative bias.
Shares of Compass Group tumbled 5 percent. The British catering company has reported a higher annual underlying operating profit, but warned that it is not immune to the macro environment.
'Deteriorating business and consumer confidence in Europe has impacted our business and industry volumes, new business activity and margin,' Group chief executive Dominic Blakermore said.
CRH shares rallied 2 percent. The building materials group said that its nine-month EBITDA, a key earnings metric, climbed 27 percent to 3.2 billion euros from last year's 2.5 billion euros. On a like-for-like basis, EBITDA grew 7 percent.
Real estate investment trust Shaftesbury slumped 4 percent after its profit for the year ended 30 September 2019 dropped to 26.0 million pounds from last year's 175.5 million pounds.
Elsewhere, Asian markets rose broadly, but ended off their day's highs in view of conflicting headlines on U.S.-China trade negotiations in recent days.
U.S. stock futures were a tad firmer, a day after each of Wall Street's three major averages stuck new record highs.
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