Following overnight losses on Wall Street, European equities fell on Wednesday as concerns about a US recession returned following negative data that overshadowed the early excitement over Microsoft and Alphabet’s strong earnings.
At 07:10 GMT, the pan-European STOXX 600 index (.STOXX) was down 0.4%, with technology shares (.SX8P) suffering a 1.3% decline as a major drag.
The biggest loser on the index, ASM International (ASMI.AS), down 10.0% after the Dutch manufacturer of semiconductor equipment announced a decline in first-quarter orders due to worsening market conditions, but exceeding estimates in revenue.
Oil price tagging oil shares (.SXEP) increased by 0.7%.
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O) and Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL.O) both reported earnings that exceeded expectations, but market confidence remained shaky due to concerns about the recession in the world’s largest economy.
Standard Chartered Plc (STAN.L) stock increased 0.6% following the British bank’s 21% increase in first-quarter pretax profit, which surpassed forecasts.
Saab (SAABb.ST) increased 1.9% as the Swedish manufacturer of defense equipment announced an increase in operational profit for its first quarter and hinted at strong demand.
Temenos (TEMN.S), a Swiss provider of banking software, increased 8.8% after announcing first-quarter earnings that beat expectations.
For additional hints on the central bank’s course of monetary tightening, investors will keenly follow the commentary of a number of ECB governors scheduled to appear later in the day.