European markets were lower Friday, rounding off a choppy first week of the new year.
The Stoxx 600 was down 0.77% at 9:38 a.m. London time as all sectors fell in to the red. Retail stocks fell 1.7% after data showed German retail sales dropped far more than expected in November.
EUROPEAN MARKETS
| TICKER | COMPANY | PRICE | CHANGE | %CHANGE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| .FTSE | FTSE 100 | 7670.17 | -52.9 | -0.68 |
| .GDAXI | DAX | 16508.7 | -108.59 | -0.65 |
| .FCHI | CAC 40 Index | 7379.55 | -71.08 | -0.95 |
| .FTMIB | FTSE MIB | 30252.7 | -151.26 | -0.5 |
| .IBEX | IBEX 35 Idx | 10100.1 | -82.3 | -0.81 |
The pan-European index gained 0.7% on Thursday, following two negative sessions. Stock markets in the U.S. and Asia-Pacific have had a mostly negative start to 2024, with the major Wall Street averages on course to snap nine-week winning runs.
Flash euro zone inflation figures are due Friday morning, after headline prints for France and Germany both crept higher on the previous month. Euro zone price rises cooled significantly to 2.4% in November, but economists polled by Reuters expect that to have risen to 3% in December.
In the U.S., investors will be assessing whether the December jobs report indicates the economy is cooling enough to allow for interest rate cuts, but not so much as to signal economic distress. The Dow Jones estimate is for a nonfarm payrolls gain of 170,000.
German retail sales down more than expected
Retail sales in Germany fell 2.5% month on month in November, according to the national statistics agency, plunging well below the 0.1% dip forecast in a Reuters poll of analysts.
Overall, sales were estimated to have been 3.1% lower in 2023 than in 2022.
However, statistics agency Destatis noted that the pandemic had fueled a run of strong growth, and sales were still 1.6% above their 2019 level.