European Shares Lack Direction Ahead Of Next Week’s Fed Meeting

European stocks were little changed on Friday as traders pared their expectations for a U.S. rate cut in June and braced for more hawkish signals from a Federal Reserve meeting next week.

According to the CME FedWatch Tool, the probability of the Fed leaving the policy rate unchanged at June meeting climbed from 25 percent to 40 percent after the U.S. CPI data released earlier this week and Thursday’s PPI data.

Meanwhile, statistical office INSEE reported earlier today that French consumer price inflation eased slightly less than initially estimated in February.

Consumer price inflation softened marginally to 3.0 percent from 3.1 percent in the prior month. In the initial estimate, the rate of inflation was 2.9 percent.

However, this was the lowest rate since December 2021, when inflation stood at 2.8 percent.

EU-harmonized inflation slowed to 3.2 percent in February from 3.4 percent in January. In the initial report, the rate of increase was 3.1 percent.

The pan European STOXX 600 was marginally lower at 506.05 after closing 0.2 percent lower on Thursday.

The German DAX and France’s CAC 40 were marginally higher while the U.K.’s FTSE 100 traded with a negative bias.

Vodafone Group shares jumped 4.3 percent in London. The telecom major announced a binding agreement to sell Vodafone Italy to telecom service provider Swisscom AG for an enterprise value of 8 billion euros.

Housebuilder Berkeley Group was marginally higher after backing its annual pre-tax profit guidance.

Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust added nearly 2 percent. The company said its Board has now decided to make available at least £1 billion to purchase its shares over the next two years.

Thermal processing expert Bodycote soared 5 percent after posting a rise in profits and commencing a £60m share buyback program.

Vonovia SE shares slumped 6.3 percent after the German real estate service firm reported its biggest loss ever for 2023.

Steel major Salzgitter AG fell nearly 4 percent after posting a plunge in net profit for the full year, mainly due weak economic conditions and lower steel prices.

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