European markets were little changed on Tuesday as investors monitor key economic data and the beginning of corporate earnings season.
TICKER COMPANY NAME PRICE CHANGE %CHANGE VOLUME
.FTSE FTSE 100 FTSE 6882.81 -6.31 -0.09 56877638
.GDAXI DAX DAX 15247.41 32.41 0.21 7405492
.FCHI CAC 40 Index CAC 6179.33 17.65 0.29 5781386
The pan-European Stoxx 600 inched 0.1% above the flatline in early trade, with tech stocks adding 0.7% while telecoms slid 0.7%.
Shares in Asia-Pacific mostly inched higher overnight following a muted session stateside Monday. U.S. stock futures were little changed in premarket trade ahead of a highly anticipated inflation report set for release before Tuesday’s opening bell on Wall Street.
Back in Europe, U.K. GDP grew 0.4% in February from the previous month according to official data published Tuesday, slightly missing economist expectations of a 0.6% expansion. Manufacturing output rose by 1.3%, outstripping expectations for a 0.5% monthly gain, while services output grew 0.2%, missing projections for 0.6% growth.
April’s ZEW economic sentiment index for Germany and the euro zone is published at 10 a.m.
In corporate news, Airbus on Monday announced that both its defense and technology chiefs will step down on July 1 and appointed a new chief operating officer. CEO Guillaume Faury said the shake-up would scrap the split ownership of technical resources and lead to greater cohesion within the planemaker’s ranks.
Meanwhile, China Eastern Airline will increase its stake in Air France KLM after contributing to a $1.2 billion share issue, the Franco-Dutch airline group announced Monday.
Earnings season also gets underway in Europe, with French luxury group LVMH reporting after the bell while the U.K.’s JD Sports and French Connection and Switzerland’s Givaudan all reported Tuesday morning.
Sweden’s Avanza Bank shares climbed 6% in early trade after beating first-quarter profit expectations, while compatriot telecoms firm Telia Company slid 4% to the bottom of the index.
