Europe open: Stocks waver as investors sift through earnings

European stocks wavered in early trade as investors sifted through corporate earnings.

At 0850 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 index was up 0.3%, Germany’s DAX was down 0.3% and France’s CAC 40 was flat.

Meanwhile, oil prices retreated. West Texas Intermediate was down 0.4% to $45.61 a barrel and Brent crude was 0.4% weaker at $46.77.

Rebecca O’Keeffe, head of investment at stockbroker Interactive Investor, said that as the initial shock of the Trump win wears off, “expectations have waned and the huge sector moves seen over the past week are starting to unwind a little”.

“Industrial metal prices remain volatile, having potentially overpriced the infrastructure impact and moved too far, too fast. Technology companies, which had fallen sharply, are seeing investors move back into the sector. Emerging markets are also paring losses from last week, as investors start to rethink some of the early reaction and reality returns to the market.”

In corporate news, Bouygues gained ground as the French conglomerate’s net profit for the first nine months of the year beat expectations.

German payments processor Wirecard rallied after it released guidance for next year, while Dutch insurer Delta Lloyd pushed higher after saying it was on track for its cost-cutting programme and lifting its savings estimates for 2018.

Insurer Prudential ticked higher after reporting a 19% jump in new business profit in the first nine months of the year and saying it plans to boost its dividend by 5% a year.

Rolls-Royce gained ground after saying its outlook for 2016 remained unchanged for revenue, profit and cash. The aerospace and defence company said it would benefit from weaker sterling and life cycle cost reductions which would more than offset higher engineering and programme costs in its civil aerospace unit.

Anglo American was higher after Goldman Sachs upped to the stock to ‘buy’ from ‘sell’.

On the downside, Bayer was on the back foot after the German healthcare and chemicals group announced plans to sell €4bn worth of mandatory convertible notes to help funds its acquisition of Monsanto.

Housebuilder Barratt Developments ticked lower after saying in a trading update that sales in July had risen by 4.3% but cautioning that the housing market was becoming more challenging.

Peer British Land also nudged lower as it posted higher profits for the first half of the year but said it expects to proceeds more cautiously in property development as it noted a change in the behaviour of property markets since the Brexit vote.