By Emily Horton
European stocks were down on Wednesday, as fears over the global economic slowdown continued to spook investors. Reports that U.S. officials had canceled trade talks with China, scheduled for later this week, added to the uncertainty.
FTSE 250-listed Metro Bank PLC /zigman2/quotes/206637465/delayed UK:MTRO -0.19% lost 28% after it announced weaker growth in the final quarter.
What are markets doing?
The Stoxx Europe 600 /zigman2/quotes/210599654/delayed XX:SXXP +0.70% dropped by 0.2% to 354.41, after closing 0.4% on Tuesday.
The U.K.’s FTSE 100 /zigman2/quotes/210598409/delayed UK:UKX +0.91% was the biggest loser of Europe’s major indexes, falling 0.5% to 6,868.77.
Germany’s DAX 30 /zigman2/quotes/210597999/delayed DX:DAX +0.32% lost 0.3% to 11,058.08 and Italy’s FTSE MIB Italy index /zigman2/quotes/210598024/delayed IT:I945 +0.52% dipped 1%. France’s CAC 40 /zigman2/quotes/210597958/delayed FR:PX1 +0.82% remained mostly unchanged at 4,844.73.
The euro /zigman2/quotes/210561242/realtime/sampled EURUSD +0.0263% stayed flat on Wednesday, fetching $1.1361, while the British pound /zigman2/quotes/210561263/realtime/sampled GBPUSD +0.0073% was up to $1.2987 from $1.2955 late Tuesday in New York.
What’s driving the market?
A combination of the lower global growth forecasts from the International Monetary Fund and a fresh set of weak economic data from China earlier in the week have continued to weigh on investor sentiment.
The fragile optimism over a potential trade truce between the U.S. and China was punctured on Tuesday evening, after reports emerged that White House officials had canceled a planned meeting with China.
Meanwhile, George Osborne, the former U.K. Chancellor who campaigned for the country to remain part of the European Union, thinks that a delay to Brexit is the most likely outcome from weeks of political deadlock.
What stock are active?
Metro Bank PLC /zigman2/quotes/206637465/delayed UK:MTRO -0.19% lost 28% after it announced weaker growth in the fourth quarter. However, the challenger bank still saw profits more than double in 2018.
The U.S. Federal Reserve has launched an investigation into how Deutsche Bank AG /zigman2/quotes/205584254/delayed DE:DBK 0.00% handled billions of dollars in suspicious transactions from Danske Bank AS /zigman2/quotes/209678580/delayed DK:DANSKE -1.23% , Bloomberg reports, citing unnamed sources. Both banks fell by around 1%.
Semiconductor stock company ASML Holdings NV /zigman2/quotes/206208657/delayed NL:ASML +2.18% lost 3%, while heavyweight miner Antofagasta PLC /zigman2/quotes/200173667/delayed UK:ANTO +4.17% fell by almost 1%, despite predicting that 2019 will be a record year.
Burberry Group PLC /zigman2/quotes/205386705/delayed UK:BRBY +1.98% lost 2%, after its third quarter results fell slightly.
WH Smith PLC /zigman2/quotes/201823422/delayed UK:SMWH +1.15% gained 3% after the company said that strong growth in its travel division more than offset a slight decline in its high-street unit in early fiscal 2019.
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