European Markets Finished Firmly In The Red On Commodity Weakness

(RTTNews) - The majority of the European markets ended Wednesday's session in negative territory. A mixed bag of corporate earnings results and weakness in commodity prices had a negative impact on investor sentiment.

Energy stocks were under pressure for most of the day after crude oil prices dropped to around $49 a barrel in early trade. However, energy stocks pared their losses going into the close after the U.S. EIA report showed an unexpected draw down in crude inventories.

Mining and resource stocks also turned in a weak performance, due to a pull back in precious metal prices.

The planned summit to sign the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union and Canada is still possible on Thursday, European Council President Donald Tusk said Wednesday.

His comments came as Belgian lawmakers began a second day of talks on the deal that took about seven years of negotiations to formulate. Three deadlines to sign the pact have passed, reports said.

Belgium cannot approve the deal without the consent from all its seven federal, regional and linguistic communities. The French-speaking Wallonia is posing the major opposition to the deal.

The rest of the EU, which are 27 countries, are willing to sign the deal. The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index weakened by 0.38 percent. The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks decreased 0.21 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, lost 0.55 percent.

The DAX of Germany dropped 0.44 percent and the CAC 40 of France fell 0.14 percent. The FTSE 100 of the U.K. declined 0.85 percent and the SMI of Switzerland finished lower by 0.47 percent.

In Frankfurt, drug maker Bayer declined 1.40 percent despite posting solid third-quarter results.

In Paris, aerospace group Airbus climbed 3.76 percent despite reporting a 21 percent fall in third-quarter earnings due to weakness in its commercial plane business.

Kering surged 7.75 percent after the luxury goods maker reported a 10 percent increase in third-quarter sales.

Cap Gemini sank 7.28 percent despite confirming its 2016 guidance.

In London, Antofagasta dropped 3.15 percent after the company guided toward a lower copper output range in 2017.

Mortgage lender Lloyds Banking Group has set aside a further £1bn to compensate customers who were wrongly sold loan insurance. The stock increased 0.11 percent.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group finished higher by 0.73 percent after Clydesdale made a preliminary non-binding proposal to snap up its Williams & Glyn operations.

Logitech surged 16.75 percent in Zurich after reporting a rise in Q2 retail revenue.

Chemical company Novozymes plunged 11.22 percent in Copenhagen after it posted weak third-quarter results and trimmed its full-year outlook to the lower end of its previous range.

Banco Santander gained 0.38 percent in Madrid after its third-quarter net profit topped forecasts.

German consumer confidence is set to weaken to a 7-month low in November as weak global growth is expected to affect the domestic activity, a closely watched survey revealed Wednesday. The forward-looking consumer sentiment index fell to 9.7 from 10.0 in October, the Nuremberg-based market research group GfK said in its monthly survey report.

The score was forecast to remain unchanged at 10.0. The indicator has fallen below the ten-point mark for the first time since June 2016 and reached its lowest value since April.

Germany's import prices decreased at a slower-than-expected pace in September, after rebounding in the previous month, figures from Destatis showed Wednesday.

Import prices fell 1.8 percent year-over-year in September, just below economists' expectations for a decline of 1.9 percent. In August, prices had risen 2.6 percent.

Data also showed that export prices decreased 0.6 percent in September from a year ago, while it showed no variations from the preceding month.

French consumer confidence improved as expected in October, survey data from the statistical office Insee showed Wednesday. The consumer sentiment index rose to 98 in October from 97 in September. A similar higher reading was last seen in May and reached the highest level since October 2007, when the score was 100.

U.K. mortgage approvals increased to a 3-month high in September, the British Bankers' Association reported Wednesday. The number of mortgages approved for house purchases rose to 38,252 in September from 37,241 in August. This was the highest since June, when approvals totaled 39,880.

Chinese consumer confidence improved for the second straight month in October to the strongest level in six months, led by a significant rise in consumers' willingness to spend, results of a survey by the Deutsche Boerse Group's MNI Indicators showed Wednesday.

The Westpac MNI consumer sentiment indicator climbed to 117.1 in October from 115.2 in the previous month.

The U.S. trade deficit in goods came in at $56.1 billion in September, down 5.2 percent from $59.1 billion in August.

New home sales rose in September, though the increase was helped by revisions to figures from the previous month. The rate of sales came in below what economists had expected.

Data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce showed that new home sales rose 3.1 percent to an annual rate of 593,000. Economists had expected a rate of 601,000. The result was 29.8 percent higher than last year.