European Stocks Close Broadly Lower After Cautious Session

European stocks closed broadly lower on Tuesday as investors largely stayed cautious and refrained from making significant moves ahead of Wednesday’s U.S. inflation data, which is expected to provide clues about the pace of Federal Reserve’s policy tightening moves.

Investors continued to react to earnings updates and other corporate announcements, in addition to following the developments on the geopolitical front.

The Russian bombardment of a Ukrainian power plant has sparked fears of a radioactive fallout in Europe.

Elsewhere, Taiwan’s foreign minister said earlier today that China has used the drills in its military playbook to prepare for the invasion of Taiwan.

The pan European Stoxx 600 slid 0.67%. Germany’s DAX drifted down 1.12%, France’s CAC 40 ended 0.53% down and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 edged up 0.08%. Switzerland’s SMI shed 0.3%.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and Turkiye ended weak.

Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Portugal, Russia and Spain closed higher.

In the UK market, ABRDN declined nearly 7%. JD Sports Fashion and Scottish Mortgage lost 5.2% and 4.6%, respectively. Entain, ICP, Berkeley Holdings, RightMove, Flutter Entertainment, Ocado Group, Auto Trader Group, Aveva, Rolls-Royce Holdings, IAG, Croda International, RS Group and Persimmon lost 2 to 4%.

Imperial Brands, Pearson, National Grid, BP, HSBC Holdings, Airtel Africa, Centrica, British American Tobacco, AstraZeneca, BT Group and Shell gained 1 to 2%.

In Paris, Faurecia and STMicroElectronics both shed more than 5%. Atos, Michelin, Air France-KLM and Valeo lost 2.8 to 4.1%.

Saint Gobain, Renault, Sanofi, Teleperformance, Dassault Systemes, Essilor, Hermes International and LVMH shed 1 to 2%.

Bouygues, Orange and Thales gained 1 to 1.5%.

In the German market, HelloFresh, Continental and Zalando lost more than 6%. Infineon Technologies, Puma, Sartorius and Adidas shed 3.2 to 4.4%.

Siemens, Deutsche Post, Covestro, Qiagen, Vonovia, Porsche Automobil, Volkswagen, Bayer, Symrise, Siemens Healthineers and BASF also declined sharply.

Munich RE gained nearly 2%. Deutsche Telekom, E.ON, RWE, Allianz and Fresenius also closed higher.

In Switzerland, shares of duty-free retailer Dufry rallied sharply after the company reported strong first-half results.

In economic news, UK retail sales rebounded unexpectedly in July as hot weather boosted demand for summer clothing and electric fans, data compiled by the British Retail Consortium and the advisory services firm KPMG showed.

Like-for-like sales increased 1.6% on a yearly basis in July, in contrast to the expected fall of 1.5%. Sales were down 1.3% in June. Overall sales increased 2.3% in July from the last year.

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