Europe open: Stocks slip after Fed policy decision, ECB ahead
Stocks have begun the morning trading lower, tracking a mixed close on Wall Street overnight and on the back of a mixed batch of economic data out of China overnight.
Airbus Group N.V.
€160.66
16:40 18/04/24
CAC 40
8,023.26
17:00 18/04/24
DJ EURO STOXX 50
4,936.57
23:58 18/04/24
Traders were also waiting on policy announcements from the European Central Bank at 1245 GMT and the Bank of England at noon.
As at 1030 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx 600 slipped 0.38% or 1.47 points to close at 389.24, alongside a fall of 0.59% or 76.73 points to 13,049.39 in the Dax and a 0.46% or 24.97 point retreat for the Cac-40 to 5,376.34.
On Wednesday evening, rate-setters in the States tightened policy yet again, as expected, raising the target range for the main policy rate by 25 basis points to between 1.25% and 1.50%, as expected.
However, two top officials dissented from the decision, saying instead that they would prefer to keep rates on hold.
They were backed up to an extent by a rather glum assessment from outgoing Fed chair Janet Yellen regarding the potential impact that Republican's proposed tax cuts would have on economic growth.
Meanwhile, the latest readings on Chinese industrial production, fixed asset investment and retail sales for November came in roughly as economists had projected - except for the latter.
Yet looking at the figures in greater detail some economists continued to see signs of an impending slowdown in the near-term.
Commenting on those figures, Julian Evans-Pritchard at Capital Economics said: "The upshot is that investment appears to have held up reasonably well last month. Nonetheless, industrial output growth has continued to soften, most likely as a result of disruptions from the pollution crackdown in the north-east of the country. Looking ahead, we see additional headwinds to economic activity from the cooling property sector and slowing credit growth."
Back in Europe, IHS Markit's composite euro area purchasing managers' index jumped from a reading of 57.5 for October to 58.0 in November (consensus: 57.2) - an 82-month high.
Airbus continued to be on traders' radar, with Reuters reporting that according to two people familiar with the matter Delta Air Lines had "looked closely" at putting in an order for 100 Airbus A321neo jets.