BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - European markets closed mostly weak on Wednesday as investors reacted to a slew of corporate earnings updates and looked ahead to a second round of U.S.-Iran peace talks, proposed to be held later in the week.
According to media reports, teams from the U.S. and Iran are likely to return to Pakistan later this week for a fresh round of talks. U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly told Fox News that he views the war was very close to being over. The President said that talks could resume 'within the next two days'.
The United States has reportedly set out two new conditions before restarting negotiations.
Washington wants full and unrestricted reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, Israel Hayom reported, adding the Americans are sticking to a position of reciprocity.
The pan European Stoxx 600 ended down by 0.43%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 shed 0.47%, France's CAC 40 closed lower by 0.64% and Germany's DAX edged up 0.09%. Switzerland's SMI settled lower by 0.38%.
Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden ended weak.
Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Poland, Russia and Türkiye closed higher. Iceland and Ireland ended flat.
In the UK market, Rank Group surged 12.5%. The gambling operator raised its full-year underlying operating profit guidance after reporting a 5% year-on-year increase in fiscal Q3 2025-26 net gaming revenue.
Antofagasta moved higher. After posting a drop in Q1 copper production, the miner said it expects output to rise steadily through the remainder of the year.
Entain climbed nearly 5%. Barratt Redrow, ICG, AutoTrader Group, Experian, Relx, The Sage Group, Standard Life and Pearson gained 2%-3.5%.
Imperial Brands, Airtel Africa and Fresnillo lost 3%-3.6%. GSK, Associated British Foods, Coca-Cola HBC, Burberry Group, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Weir Group, Halma, IMI, Endeavour Mining and Glencore shed 1.3%-2.7%.
In the German market, Brenntag, Rheinmetall, SAP, Zalando, Adidas and Scout24 closed notably higher.
Fresenius Medical Care, Fresenius, Continental, BASF, Heidelberg Materials, Gea Group, Deutsche Post and Daimler Truck Holding lost 1%-2.5%.
BMW drifted down by about 0.7%. BMW Group announced that vehicles sales (BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce) dropped down by 3.5% in the first quarter of 2026, compared to sales in the year-ago quarter. Demand for petrol and diesel cars stayed slightly higher than last year, BMW said.
In the French market, Edenred climbed nearly 4%. Publicis Group moved up by about 3.1%.
Stellantis gained 2%. The Franco-Italian automaker reported a 12% rise in global shipments in the first quarter.
Dassault Systemes, Capgemini, Renault, Eurofins Scientific, Bureau Veritas, Carrefour and Teleperformance gained 1%-2%.
Kering tanked nearly 10% after sales at its flagship brand, Gucci, posted its eleventh straight quarterly decline. The luxury goods company reported first-quarter 2026 revenue of 3.57 billion euros, representing a 6% decline as reported, but remaining stable on a comparable basis.
Hermes International shed about 8% after reporting a slowdown in sales growth for the first quarter. For the first quarter, the Group posted revenue of EUR 4.070 billion, less than EUR 4.129 billion in the same period last year. Revenue from the ready-to-wear and accessories business fell to EUR 1.076 billion from EUR 1.149 billion in the previous year.
Safran, Saint-Gobain, Vinci, ArcelorMittal and Legrand also ended notably lower.
In economic news, France's harmonized consumer price inflation accelerated slightly more than initially estimated in March, final data from the statistical office INSEE revealed.
EU harmonized inflation hit 2% in March, which was up from the initial estimate of 1.9% and exceeded the 1.1% rise in February.
At the same time, the statistical office confirmed that consumer price inflation rose to 1.7%, as previously estimated, from 0.9% in February. This was the sharpest rise since August 2024.
The acceleration in overall inflation was driven by the 7.4% surge in energy prices. Data showed that services inflation advanced to 1.7% from 1.6%.
Meanwhile, food inflation decelerated to 1.8% from 2% and manufactured products prices fell 0.5%.
On a monthly basis, consumer price inflation advanced to 1% from 0.6%. The initially estimated increase was 0.9%.
Eurozone industrial output increased by 0.4% in March, after dropping by 0.8% in February, data from Eurostat showed. Industrial output was expected to rise by 0.3% in March.
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