European Markets Finished Mostly Lower Again

(RTTNews) - The majority of the European markets ended Thursday's session in the red, continuing the pull back of the previous two sessions. As concerns over Greece continue to ease, investors have shifted their focus to corporate earnings results. Chip makers bounced back from yesterday's weakness, which was sparked by the disappointing forecast from U.S. tech giant Apple.

Greece cleared another hurdle and stepped into the bailout zone after the government approved the second set of reform measures early Thursday, as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is seeking to close a deal that will offer up to EUR 86 billion debt even as the crisis struck country faces protests and violence.

The reforms, which is the final requirement before the country can start the bailout negotiations with its creditors, included lifting of liquidity of banks, deposit security and renewing of the judicial system. In the 300-seat parliament, 230 lawmakers voted in favor of the bill, with support for the ruling party coming from the pro-euro opposition parties.

The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks decreased by 0.07 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, lost 0.45 percent.

The DAX of Germany dropped by 0.16 percent, but the CAC 40 of France rose by 0.03 percent. The FTSE of the U.K. declined by 0.25 percent, but the SMI of Switzerland finished higher by 1.04 percent.

In Frankfurt, Software AG surged by 8.62 percent. The business software firm confirmed its 2015 outlook after increasing its net income for the second quarter of 2015 to 19.9 million euros from 14.2 million euros last year.

STMicroelectronics fell by 3.42 percent, despite its better than expected second quarter earnings report.

Infineon Technologies climbed by 2.10 percent, bouncing back from yesterday's pull back.

In Paris, Publicis Groupe declined by 2.84 percent. Net income for the first half of 2015 was 363 million euros or 1.59 euros per share, up from 260 million euros or 1.14 euros per share for the corresponding period in 2014.

Technip dropped by 1.57 percent and Total dipped by 0.25 percent.

In London, SABMiller fell by 0.80 percent, after its quarterly sales missed estimates.

Aberdeen Asset Management sank by 7.30 percent, after the fund manager reported net outflows of 9.9 billion pounds in the three months to June 30.

Pearson gained 1.99 percent, after it agreed to sell its FT Group to Nikkei Inc. for a gross consideration of 844 million pounds.

Credit Suisse Group rallied by 6.22 percent in Zurich. The lender reported a better-than-expected second-quarter profit after a 700 million francs loss in the year-ago period.

Syngenta dropped by 0.77 percent, after it reported that its net income for the first half of the year slid 12 percent to $1.22 billion.

Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever climbed by 1.03 percent in Amsterdam after reporting higher-than-expected quarterly sales.

U.K. retail sales declined unexpectedly in June, reflecting weak food and non-food store turnover, weighing marginally on the second quarter economic growth.

Retail sales including automotive fuel declined 0.2 percent in June from the prior month, reversing a 0.3 percent rise in May, data from the Office for National Statistics showed Thursday. Sales were expected to grow 0.4 percent. This was the first drop in three months.

Spain's jobless rate declined to a near four-year low in the second quarter, the statistical office INE said Thursday. The unemployment rate dropped to 22.37 percent from 23.78 percent in the first quarter. This was the lowest rate since the third quarter of 2011, when it was 21.28 percent.

Economists had forecast the rate to fall to 22.5 percent. The jobless rate was 24.47 percent in the second quarter of last year.

In an upbeat sign for the job market, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits tumbled to their lowest level in over forty years in the week ended July 18th.

The report said initial jobless claims dropped to 255,000, a decrease of 26,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 281,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 279,000. With the much bigger than expected decrease, jobless claims fell to their lowest level since hitting 233,000 in November of 1973.

Pointing to continued strength in the economic outlook for the remainder of the year, the Conference Board released a report on Thursday showing another bigger than expected increase by its index of leading U.S. economic indicators.

The Conference Board said its leading economic index climbed by 0.6 percent in June following an upwardly revised 0.8 percent increase in May. Economists had expected the index to edge up by 0.2 percent compared to the 0.7 percent increase originally reported for the previous month.