Western European stock indexes are falling in the course of trading on Wednesday, investors took a wait-and-see attitude ahead of the final results of the US congressional elections.
According to preliminary media forecasts, the Republican Party will almost certainly regain the majority in the House of Representatives, while the battle for the Senate continues with approximately equal chances of victory for both parties.
That said, Democrats need 50 seats to win a majority in the upper chamber, while Republicans need 51, as Vice President Kamala Harris, who is from the Democratic Party, has the deciding vote in the absence of a majority in both parties.
The Stoxx Europe 600 composite index of the region’s largest companies was down 0.66 percent at 418.81 points by 11:50 a.m.
The British FTSE 100 stock index was down 0.32%, the German DAX was down 0.76% while the French CAC 40 was down 0.45%. Italian FTSE MIB and Spanish IBEX 35 are losing less than 0.1%.
In addition, market participants are waiting for the data on inflation in the U.S. in October, which may affect the Fed’s policy. The report will be published on Thursday, and analysts polled by Trading Economics on average expect it to indicate a slowdown in inflation in October to 8% from September’s 8.2%.
Also Wednesday, it was reported that inflation in China slowed in October to its lowest level since May. Consumer prices (CPI) rose 2.1% year on year last month after climbing 2.8% in September, while analysts on average had expected a more moderate slowdown to 2.4%.
Compared with the previous month, consumer prices in the PRC rose 0.1% in October after rising 0.3% a month earlier. Experts predicted that the growth rate will remain at the September level.
Shares of adidas AG are down 0.1%. The world’s second-largest sporting goods manufacturer cut its net profit nearly threefold in the third quarter despite a revenue increase and worsened its full-year forecast for the fourth time since the start of the year.
British department store chain Marks & Spencer Group Plc (M&S) was down 6.2%, although it boosted its pretax profit in the first half of fiscal 2023 and reaffirmed its full-year guidance.
Commerzbank AG’s capitalization is also down 6.2%. Germany’s second-largest bank cut net income and revenue in the third quarter of fiscal 2022, though both were better than analysts’ expectations.
The leader of growth among Stoxx 600 components are shares of Evotec SE, a German pharmaceutical company, which fell 9% on news about the company receiving a net loss for the first nine months of this year.
The most active growth in the index is demonstrated by securities of Swedish energy company Orron Energy (+3.8%) and German military-industrial company Rheinmetall AG (+3.6%).
