By Emily Horton
European stocks were down on Tuesday, after investor fears returned over the state of the global economy — with concerns over China growth at the front of that.
Swiss bank UBS Groups AG /zigman2/quotes/206994749/delayed CH:UBSG +3.19% missed profit expectations, putting the European banking sector under pressure.
What are markets doing?
The Stoxx Europe 600 /zigman2/quotes/210599654/delayed XX:SXXP +1.26% slipped 0.2% to 355.58, after the index finished down 0.2% on Monday.
Germany’s DAX 30 /zigman2/quotes/210597999/delayed DX:DAX +1.38% fell by 0.2% to 11,112.54, while France’s CAC 40 /zigman2/quotes/210597958/delayed FR:PX1 +1.17% dropped 0.3% to 4,854.65. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 /zigman2/quotes/210598409/delayed UK:UKX +1.67% lost 0.4% to 6,946.36.
Italy’s FTSE MIB Italy index /zigman2/quotes/210598024/delayed IT:I945 +0.17% was 0.5% lower at 19,537.76.
The euro /zigman2/quotes/210561242/realtime/sampled EURUSD +0.0187% slipped to $1.1359 from $1.1367 late Monday in New York,
The British pound /zigman2/quotes/210561263/realtime/sampled GBPUSD -0.0318% rose slightly to $1.2894 from $1.2891.
What’s driving the market?
After China posted its slowest annual pace of annual growth—6.6%—since 1990, President Xi Jinping reportedly convened a meeting of high-level Communist Party officials , urging them to be alert over “black swan” and “gray rhino” financial events in face of an economic slowdown.
Citing the weak data, U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted late on Monday that China needs to “finally do a Real Deal and stop playing around,” when it comes to trade. But the two countries reportedly remain far apart on key issues such as theft of intellectual property.
Swiss bank UBS Group AG /zigman2/quotes/206994749/delayed CH:UBSG +3.19% said Tuesday that it swung to a profit in the fourth quarter of the year but missed analysts’ expectations. The Swiss bank reported a net profit of $696 million for the quarter,compared with a loss of $2.42 billion a year earlier, when it took hit from the U.S. tax overhaul of almost $3 billion.
Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets U.K., said this was the latest sign “European banks continue to struggle with the negative rate environment as well as rising political uncertainty”.
What stocks are active?
UBS Groups AG /zigman2/quotes/206994749/delayed CH:UBSG +3.19% dropped 5% after its profit announcement and Germany’s Deutsche Bank AG /zigman2/quotes/205584254/delayed DE:DBK +8.73% lost 4%.
Hugo Boss AG /zigman2/quotes/205761551/delayed DE:BOSS +1.42% rose by 6% after it reported accelerated sales growth in the fourth quarter, driven by a robust performance in Asia.
Budget airline EasyJet PLC /zigman2/quotes/202825892/delayed UK:EZJ +1.78% gained more than 2%, despite announcing that its revenues per seat had dropped in its first quarter. However, EasyJet PLC said total revenue for the three-month period rose to £1.30 billion from £1.14 billion. Air France-KLM /zigman2/quotes/205396176/delayed FR:AF +1.19% also gained 2%.
Mining stocks were down on Tuesday, as heavyweight BHP Group PLC /zigman2/quotes/206213719/delayed UK:BHP +1.78% lost almost 2% after the miner released its operating review for the half year, which recorded weaker quarterly production of commodities including iron ore and petroleum.
Royal Dutch Shell PLC also lost just over 1%, after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to underweight.
Rémy Cointreau SA /zigman2/quotes/206802273/delayed FR:RCO +1.38% lost just under 3% on Tuesday backed its guidance for fiscal 2019 after posting a third-quarter sales rise.
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