European Stocks Close Lower On Inflation Concerns

European stocks closed mostly weak on Friday, weighed down by inflation worries and disappointing quarterly earnings results from Apple and Amazon.

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

Investors also digested a slew of earnings updates from European companies.

The pan European Stoxx 600 edged up 0.07%. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 slid 0.16%, Germany’s DAX edged down 0.05% and Switzerland’s SMI shed 0.37%, while France’s CAC 40 climbed 0.38%.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia and Sweden closed weak, while Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, Poland and Spain ended higher.

Tech stocks were under pressure due to the downbeat holiday-quarter forecast from the iPhone maker. Bank stocks gained on higher bond yields.

In the UK market, Natwest Group declined 4.45% despite reporting much stronger than expected quarterly earnings.

Smith & Nephew, Polymetal International, Segro, Royal Dutch Shell, Whitbread, British American Tobacco, Antofagasta, BHP Group and Fresnillo lost 1 to 2.7%.

ITV and Darktrace surged up 3.3% and 3%, respectively. Glencore, Barclays Group, Standard Chartered, Lloyds Banking Group, Pershing Square Holdings, WPP, Kingfisher and IAG gained 1 to 1.7%.

In the French market, WorldLine declined by about 3.6%. Saint Gobain shed more than 2% despite reporting a rise in nine-month sales.

Veolia, Atos, Airbus, Pernod Ricard and Legrand ended lower by 1 to 2.2%.

Essilor gained about 3.5% after raising its full-year guidance. Air France-KLM climbed about 3.2% after the airline group significantly reduced its net loss in the third quarter.

AXA gained 3.1%. Faurecia, Societe Generale, Safran, Publicis Groupe, ArcelorMittal, Bouygues, Accor and Capgemini gained 1 to 2%.

In Germany, HelloFresh, Fresenius Medical Care, Siemens Healthineers, Deutsche Wohnen and Vonovia drifted down 3 to 4%. Fresneius, E.ON, RWE, Symrise and Porsche Automobil also declined sharply.

MTU Aero Engines climbed higher after reporting third-quarter net income of 87 million euros, significantly higher than last year’s 16 million euros.

Linde, Qiagen, Zalando, Henkel, Infineon Technologies, Munich RE and Deutsche Bank ended with sharp to moderate gains.

Shares of carmaker Daimler closed on a firm note after the company posted a higher quarterly profit despite a 30% drop in Mercedes-Benz sales due to the chip crisis.

The euro area economy grew at a slightly faster pace in the third quarter, preliminary flash estimate from Eurostat showed. Gross domestic product grew 2.2% sequentially after expanding 2.1% in the second quarter. Economists had forecast the quarterly growth to ease to 2%.

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

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

Separately flash data from Eurostat showed that Eurozone inflation accelerated sharply to the highest since 2008 on higher energy prices. The data said inflation rose to 4.1% in October from 3.4% in September. This was also faster than the economists’ forecast of 3.7%. A similar higher rate was last registered in July 2008.

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