BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - Major European markets dropped to multi-month lows on Thursday as elevated bond yields and surging oil prices hurt sentiment, prompting investors to lighten commitments ahead of the weekend.
Despite softer-than-expected US PCE inflation data easing concerns about Fed rate hikes, investors appeared quite reluctant to pick up stocks. Weak UK housing prices data and French manufacturing report hurt.
With no progress seen in resolving the Middle East issue, oil prices rose sharply with front-month Brent crude futures surging to $100.79 a barrel, up by about 2.8% over previous close.
The UK's FTSE 100 was down 85.37 or 0.83% at 10,520.63 a little while ago. Germany's DAX, outperforming major peers, was down marginally at 25,192.21. France's CAC 40 was down 50.23 points or 0.63% at 7,914.28. The pan European Stoxx 600 was down 2.94 points or 0.46% at 631.96.
In Germany, Bayer, Volkswagen, Porsche Automobil Holding, Deutsche Bank, RWE, Hannover RE and BASF posted sharp to moderate losses.
Heidelberg Materials climbed 3.6%. SAP moved up nearly 2%, while Daimler Truck Holding, Hochtief and Fresenius Medical Care posted moderate gains.
In Paris, Capgemini surged more than 9%. Publicis Groupe and Sanofi climbed 3.3% and 2.5%, respectively. Dassault Systemes moved up 1.3%, while Teleperformance, Orange and Eurofins Scientific edged moderately higher.
ArcelorMittal, Credit Agricole, Societe Generale, BNP Paribas, Accor, Saint-Gobain, Accor, Kering, Bouygues, LVMH, TotalEnergies and Airbus drifted notably lower.
In the UK market, The Sage Group, AutoTrader Group, Endeavour Mining, Informa, Pearson and LSEG were among the prominent gainers.
Games Workshop dropped more than 5%. Lion Finance shed about 3.4%. Weir Group, Natwest Group, HSBC Holdings, British American Tobacco, Standard Chartered, Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays, Glencore Coca-Cola HBC and M&G also declined sharply.
In economic news, the S&P Global Germany Manufacturing PMI was revised slightly higher to 53.9 in September 2026 from a preliminary of 53.8, pointing to a slowdown from 54.3 in August which was the highest since May 2022.
Data released by S&P Global showed the S&P Global France Manufacturing PMI eased to 50.6 in September from 51.1 in August, surpassing the preliminary estimate of 50.3. Factory production increased for a second straight month, but only marginally as falling demand weighed on output.
Data released by the Nationwide Building Society revealed UK house prices dropped unexpectedly in September, falling 0.2% on a monthly basis, offsetting a 0.2% rise in August. Prices were forecast to remain flat.
On a yearly basis, house price growth halved to 0.8% from 1.6% in the previous month, marking the weakest growth since December 2025. Economists had forecast an annual growth of 1.3%.
In the third quarter, house prices were down 0.4% from the prior quarter but increased 1.2% from the previous year.
Nationwide's Chief Economist Robert Gardner said housing market activity remained subdued in recent months due to the uncertain economic conditions. The conflict in the Middle East exerts upward pressure on energy prices, fanning inflation concerns, he noted.
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