Europe midday: Stocks under pressure as bond yields grind higher

European stocks were trading sharply lower come midday on Friday following recent tightening moves by central banks around the world, with Credit Suisse sharply lower.

Geopolitical tensions and a batch of weak survey readings for the euro area did little to alleviate the mood.

Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said: "A week dominated by further aggressive monetary tightening around the world has left equity markets bruised on a deteriorating outlook."

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was down by 2.65% to 389.17, while Germany’s DAX was 2.59% lower to 12,208.98, alongside a 3.08% fall for Milan's FTSE Mib to 21,126.68.

Euro/dollar was again moving sharply lower, trading down by 0.98% to 0.9740, while the yield on the benchmark 10-year Italian government bond was jumping by 13 basis points to 4.313%.

Brent crude oil futures were a bit lower alongside, off by 2.7% to $87.76 a barrel on the ICE.

For his part, in a research note sent to clients, BoA Securities's Michael Hartnett predicted further losses for the US S&P 500 amid rising bond yields globally, due to their depressing effect on equity valuations.

"Bond losses in '22 greatest since 1949 (Marshall Plan), 1931 (Credit-Anstalt), 1920 (Treaty of Versailles)," he pointed out to investors.

"Bond crash threatens liquidation of world's most crowded trades [...] long US$, long US tech, long PE.

"Fed funds, Treasury yields, US unemployment rate all heading into 4-5% range next 4-5 months/quarters; trigger for "peak Fed", "peak yield", "peak US$ dollar" contrarian buy EM, small cap, junk, semis, homebuilders, commodities will be negative payrolls..."recession = buy cyclicals"."

On the data front, the S&P Global's eurozone manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index for September printed at 48.5, down from August's 49.6 (consensus: 49.0).

A separate PMI for services meanwhile slipped from 49.8 to 48.9 (consensus: 49.1).

In corporate news, Credit Suisse tumbled nearly 6% following a Reuters report the bank is looking to raise fresh cash.