European Shares Mixed Ahead Of The Harris-Trump Presidential Debate

European stocks were mixed on Monday after having snapped a five-day losing streak the previous day.

A cautious undertone prevailed ahead of the televised U.S. presidential debate later today and U.S. inflation readings due later in the week that could influence expectations for the interest rate outlook.

Upcoming ECB and Fed meetings also remained on investors’ radar.

Analysts remain divided over whether the Federal Reserve would deliver a regular 25 basis point (bps) rate cut or an outsized 50 bps one at its Sept. 17-18 policy meeting.

Meanwhile, Germany’s consumer price inflation weakened, as initially estimated, in August due to falling energy prices, final data from Destatis showed today.

Consumer price inflation softened to 1.9 percent in August from 2.3 percent in July. The rate matched the provisional estimate published on August 29.

The British pound edged up versus the euro and dollar as new data supported the view that the British economy was on a solid footing.

Official data revealed that the U.K. unemployment rate dropped in the three months to July and the wage growth softened to a two-year low.

The unemployment rate fell to 4.1 percent in the three months to July from 4.2 percent in the preceding period.

Annual growth in average earnings, excluding bonuses, was 5.1 percent in the three months to July, as expected, but weaker than the 5.4 percent posted in the prior period. This was the weakest since 2022.

Capital Economics’ economist Ashley Webb said that further easing in wage growth is a welcome sign but will not be enough to prompt a back-to-back 25 basis points interest rate cut, from 5.00 percent to 4.75 percent in September.

The pan-European STOXX 600 slid 0.1 percent to 09.98 after rising 0.8 percent on Monday.

The German DAX dipped 0.4 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 shed 0.6 percent while France’s CAC 40 was up 0.1 percent.

In corporate news, AstraZeneca slumped 4.5 percent after its lung cancer drug showed mixed results in a late-stage trial.

Gamma Communications, a provider of voice, data, mobile, and other communication services, soared 7 percent after posting a rise in earnings and revenue for the first half, supported by acquisitions.

Centamin jumped nearly 24 percent after AngloGold Ashanti made a $2.5 billion (about R44.6 billion) bid in a mix of shares and cash to acquire the gold miner.

Hearing aid maker Amplifon plummeted 6.2 percent after Apple announced that its latest AirPods earbuds will come with built-in hearing aids.

Capgemini soared 7 percent in Paris after Oracle beat on the top and bottom lines for the first quarter and announced it would bring database services to cloud infrastructure market leader Amazon Web Services.

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