European stocks fall after underwhelming Chinese growth data; earnings to ramp up
Investing.com — European stock markets retreated Monday after the release of underwhelming Chinese growth data, while the second-quarter earnings season gets underway in earnest.
At 03:30 ET (07:30 GMT), the DAX index in Germany traded 0.2% lower, the FTSE 100 in the U.K. traded down 0.1% and the CAC 40 in France fell 0.7%.
Sentiment in Europe has been hit Monday by the release of data showing that economic growth in China, a major export market for Europe’s largest companies, slowed substantially through the second quarter.
China’s second-quarter gross domestic product grew 0.8% from the prior quarter, slightly above expectations for growth of 0.5%, but slowed substantially from the 2.2% seen in the prior quarter.
On an annualized basis, GDP grew 6.3% in the second quarter, thanks largely to a lower basis for comparison from the COVID-impacted period last year, and this was lower than expectations for growth of 7.3%.
The Chinese economy has now expanded a total 5.5% so far in 2023, thanks largely to a strong first quarter, but growth has slowed over the past three months.
Investors have used these numbers to sell into last week's healthy gains, with the broad-based Stoxx 600 index climbing nearly 3%, after data showing rapidly cooling inflation in the U.S. raised expectations the Federal Reserve may be close to ending its aggressive rate-hiking cycle, boosting the U.S. economy.
The economic data slate is largely empty Monday, with only final Italian consumer prices due, but investors will look to speeches from ECB Board members Fabio Panetta, Frank Elderson and Philip Lane, as well as President Christine Lagarde, during the session for clues of the central bank’s thinking ahead of the next policy-setting meeting near
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