Europe midday: Stocks edge lower on oil, US politics

European stocks slipped on Monday as crude oil futures retreated and markets digested the possible implications of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation´s decision to reopen a probe into US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, with a surprise drop in German retail sales figures also weighing on sentiment.

At 1221 BST, Germany’s DAX fell 0.26% to 10,668.09 points, France’s CAC 40 dropped 0.65% to 4,5219.23 points, Italy’s FTSE MIB shed 0.84% to 17,182.83 points and Spain’s IBEX 35 lost 0.50% to 9,155.10 points.

Oil prices also edged lower after producers outside of OPEC made no commitment to join the cartel in curbing output to prop up prices during a meeting in Vienna on Saturday. Brent crude fell 1.10% to $49.17 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate dropped 0.87% to $48.28 per barrel.

In the previous session, the FBI said it was reopening a probe into Hillary Clinton´s use of unauthorised e-mail servers during her tenure as Secretary of State.

The results of an ABC News tracking poll published on 30 October showed Clinton with a one point lead over her Republican rival. One week before she had been 12 points ahead.

However, come midday Monday the Mexican peso - widely considered to be a gauge of Trump´s chances of winning the electoral contest - was recovering some of its poise versus the US dollar.

German retail sales, adjusted for inflation and seasonal swings, declined 1.4% in September from August, Destatis said. Economists had predicted a 0.2% increase. Compared with September last year, retail sales grew 0.4%, missing forecasts for a 1.5% rise.

Euro area gross domestic product expanded at a 0.3% quarter-on-quarter clip over the three months to September, in-line with economists´ forecasts.

In parallel, figures from Eurostat revealed that headline consumer prices advanced at a 0.5% year-on-year pace in October, which was up by one tenth of a percentage point from the previous month and also in-line with market forecasts.

Later in the week, the market will hear policy announcements from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday and the Bank of England on Thursday. While neither central bank is expected to make changes to policy, investors will be searching for clues on the direction of interest rates in their statements.

The US will also sees the highly anticipated non-farm payrolls report on Friday, and will be closely following the polls on Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump ahead of the presidential election on 8 November.

“In what is set to be an intense week, with Federal Reserve and Bank of England meetings joined by a non-farm Friday AND the final build-up to the US election, the markets have gotten off to a jittery start this Monday,” said Connor Campbell, financial analyst at Spreadex.

In company news, WPP shares gained after saying like-for-like sales growth slowed in the third quarter but profit margins were above target. Helped by sterling weakness, the advertising colossus reported quarterly revenues grew 23.4%, with constant currency growth of 7.6% and 4.4% growth from acquisitions, though LFL net sales growth was 2.8% compared with 3.8% in the first half.

Centamin edged higher after saying it expects 2016 gold production to be towards the upper end of its guidance of between 520,000 and 540,000 ounces as it reported a 41% increase in third quarter output.