Tuesday saw European markets falling as traders were more cautious ahead of a speech by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell following the overnight comments of two US central bank members.
By 08:11 GMT, the pan-European STOXX 600 was down 0.7%.
The previous session saw the index reach its highest point in eight months. Investors were paying attention to Powell’s speech later in the day as Fed members predicted that the Fed policy rate, which is currently at 4.25% to 4.5%, would need to increase to a range of 5% to 5.25% to control inflation.
Rate-sensitive technology stocks fell 1.0%, while the STOXX 600 was hurt by declines of more than 1.5% apiece in Novo Nordisk and Novartis AG, two of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies.
European stocks increase on hope for China’s reopening
Investors assessed demand risks amid worries about future US rate hikes as mining stocks slumped 1%, tracking lower copper prices.
After a difficult 2022, Europe’s STOXX 600 has increased 5.5% at the beginning of this year amid rising optimism that the euro zone would see a smaller recession than anticipated and that central banks will ease their aggressive tightening of monetary policy.
The export-oriented FTSE 100 of the UK fell 0.4%.
After describing the present level of support as “unsustainably expensive,” Britain revealed plans on Monday to reduce energy subsidies for businesses by around 85% for the upcoming fiscal year.