BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - Despite opening on a positive note, European stocks closed broadly lower on Wednesday as investors largely made cautious moves, awaiting more clarity on U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff moves and other policy decisions.
A lack of any significant data from the region also contributed to the cautious undertone in the markets.
Investors looked ahead to U.S. chip maker Nvidia's results due later in the day, and the minutes of the Federal Reserve's most recent monetary policy meeting.
The pan European Stoxx 600 fell 0.61%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100, Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 ended lower by 0.59%, 0.78% and 0.49%, respectively. Switzerland's SMI closed 1.12% down.
Among other markets in Europe, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Turkiye closed weak.
Austria and Portugal edged down marginally, while Greece, Iceland, Poland and Russia ended higher.
In the UK market, Unite Group, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Intermediate Capital Group, Peshing Square Holdings, Howden Joinery, Endeavour Mining, Frasers Group, Segro and EasyJet gained 1 to 2%.
Rentokil Initial found some support after the company said it has agreed to sell its French workwear division to H.I.G. Capital for gross proceeds of €410 million.
Kingfisher ended down by about 3.5% despite reporting higher Q1 sales and reaffirming guidance. The home improvement retailer reported that its first-quarter sales grew 1.6% from last year to 3.31 billion pounds. At constant currency rates, sales grew 2.2% and the increase was 1.8% on a like-for-like or LFL basis. Underlying total sales growth was 3.1%.
J Sainsbury closed lower by 3%. Lloyds Banking, Anglo American Plc, The Sage Group, 3i Group, Aviva, Standard Chartered, Relx, National Grid and Barclays lost 1 to 2.3%.
In the German market, BMW rallied more than 4%. Mercedes-Benz climbed about 2.7%. Continental, Qiagen and Volkswagen also closed notably higher.
Daimler Truck Holding closed down by about 4.2%. Zalando, Heidelberg Materials, Deutsche Telekom, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, Fresenius, Siemens, Beiersdorf, Merck, Symrise, Henkel and Bayer lost 1 to 2.6%.
In the French market, Unibail Rodamco and Thales gained about 2.3% and 2%, respectively. Michelin, Vivendi, Engie and Eurofins Scientific posted modest gains.
Stellantis, Renault, Essilor, L'Oreal, Publicis Groupe, Credit Agricole, Edenred, Societe Generale and BNP Paribas lost 1 to 2.5%.
In economic news, data from Destatis showed German import prices declined for the first time in six months in April due to the sharp fall in energy prices. Import prices registered an annual fall of 0.4% in April, in contrast to the 2.1% increase in March.
The 11.2% fall in energy prices had the biggest impact on overall development of import prices. Excluding energy prices, import prices rose 0.8% from the last year.
On a monthly basis, import prices were down 1.7%, marking the biggest fall since the start of the Covid-19 crisis in April 2020.
Data showed that export prices grew 1% but weaker than the 2% rise in March. Month-on-month, export prices fell 0.5%.
Meanwhile, Germany's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate held steady at 6.3% in May, the highest since September 2020 and matching forecasts.
Data from the statistical office INSEE showed France's gross domestic product grew 0.1% from the fourth quarter, when the economy shrank 0.1%. The rate matched the estimate published on April 30.
On the expenditure side of GDP, household consumption declined 0.2%, which was pulled down in particular by the drop in spending on transport equipment. Meanwhile, government spending grew 0.2%.
At the same time, gross fixed capital formation remained flat for the second straight time.
Foreign trade kept contributing negatively to GDP growth in the first quarter. Exports decreased sharply by 1.8% on weaker demand for transport equipment and chemical products. By contrast, imports climbed 0.5%, boosted by energy and other industrial products.
In April, household consumption rebounded due to the increase in consumption of food and engineered goods. Household spending rose 0.3%, in contrast to the 1.1% decrease in March.
Food consumption advanced 2.1% and engineered goods consumption gained 0.7%. By contrast, energy consumption decreased 3.6%.
Another data today showed that producer prices in France declined for the seventeenth straight month in April. Producer prices decreased 0.8% year-on-year, following a 0.2% drop in March. At the same time, monthly fall in producer prices deepened to 4.3% from 0.5%.
In the first quarter, payroll employment dropped 0.1% or 20,900 from the previous quarter. This followed a decrease of 0.4% or -98,600 in the fourth quarter.
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