European Shares Slide On Inflation Worries

European stocks fell on Friday, with inflation worries and disappointing quarterly earnings results from Apple and Amazon denting sentiment.

While Amazon badly missed on earnings and revenue, Apple warned supply chain disruption would be an increasing obstacle in the final quarter.

The euro area economy grew at a slightly faster pace in the third quarter, preliminary flash estimate from Eurostat showed earlier today.

Gross domestic product grew 2.2 percent sequentially after expanding 2.1 percent in the second quarter. Economists had forecast the quarterly growth to ease to 2 percent.

On a yearly basis, economic growth slowed markedly to 3.7 percent from 14.2 percent a quarter ago. Nonetheless, the pace of growth was faster than the economists’ forecast of 3.5 percent.

The EU27 logged a sequential growth of 2.1 percent in the third quarter taking the annual expansion to 3.9 percent.

Separately flash data from Eurostat showed that Eurozone inflation accelerated sharply to the highest since 2008 on higher energy prices.

Inflation rose to 4.1 percent in October from 3.4 percent in September. This was also faster than the economists’ forecast of 3.7 percent. A similar higher rate was last registered in July 2008.

The pan European Stoxx 600 was down half a percent at 472.97 after closing 0.2 percent higher on Thursday.

The German DAX fell 0.9 percent, France’s CAC 40 index eased 0.3 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 was down 0.4 percent.

Tech stocks were losing ground in reaction to the downbeat holiday-quarter forecast from the iPhone maker.

Infineon Technologies gave up 1 percent, AMS dropped 1.3 percent and STMicroelectronics lost 1.8 percent.

NatWest Group lost 4 percent despite delivering profit figures comfortably ahead of expectations.

Similarly, building materials firm Saint-Gobain gave up 4 percent despite reporting a rise in nine-month sales.

Air France-KLM shares jumped 4 percent after the airline group significantly reduced its net loss in the third quarter.

Luxury eyewear group EssilorLuxottica advanced 2.5 percent after raising its full-year guidance.

BNP Paribas rose over 1 percent. The lender launched a share buyback program for a maximum total of 900 million euros ($1 billion) after posting a strong rise in third-quarter profit.

Daimler added 1.2 percent after the carmaker posted a higher quarterly profit despite a 30 percent drop in Mercedes-Benz sales due to the chip crisis.

Aircraft engine manufacturer MTU Aero Engines gained 2.2 percent. The company reported that its third-quarter net income was 87 million euros, significantly higher than last year’s 16 million euros.

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