Europe open: Stocks fall ahead of Eurozone inflation, GDP data

European stocks declined on Monday as traders awaited Eurozone inflation and economic growth data, and weighed a surprise drop in German retail sales figures.

At 0839 GMT, Germany’s DAX fell 0.41% to 10,652.12 points, France’s CAC 40 dropped 0.52% to 4,524.78 points, Italy’s FTSE MIB shed 0.71% to 17,199.75 points and Spain’s IBEX 35 lost 0.76% to 9,130.80 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 0.72% to $49.35 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate dropped 0.64% to $48.39 per barrel at 0811 BST.

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.

Eurozone inflation data for October will be released at 1000 GMT, with analysts expecting annualised growth of 0.5% compared to 0.4% in September. Core inflation, which excludes volatile items such as energy and fuel prices, is forecast to remain at 0.8% year-on-year growth.

At the same time the preliminary estimate of third quarter Eurozone gross domestic product will be released. Economists anticipate GDP rose 0.3% quarter-on-quarter and 1.6% year-on-year, unchanged from the previous quarter.

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.