Europe open: Stoxx 600 at 11-week low as blue chip earnings disappoint

A wave of disappointing corporate earnings weighed heavily on European markets on Thursday, pushing the Stoxx 600 index down to levels not seen in nearly three months.

The pan-European benchmark was trading around 1.3% lower early on at 505.92 – it has not closed below this level since 3 May – with losses of 1.1% in Frankfurt, 1.7% in Frankfurt and 2% in Milan.

A bunch of heavyweight stocks were registering heavy losses across the continent following their latest quarterly earnings, including Nestle, Renault, Stellantis, Kering, BT Group, Vodafone and Lloyds.

The sell-off also followed sharp declines on Wall Street overnight after yet more disappointing corporate results, with the Nasdaq tanking 3.6% and the S&P 500 dropping 2.3% – its worst daily performance since December 2022 – following underwhelming figures from Tesla and Alphabet.

A flurry of economic data from the US due on Thursday was also likely weighing on investors' minds as markets continue to predict when the first interest-rate cut from the Federal Reserve may happen. Jobless claims, pending home sales, durable goods orders and second-quarter GDP growth data are all due out during the session.

Back in Europe, healthcare firm Roche was a rare bright spark, gaining 3% in Zurich after the company upped its profit guidance for the full year following better-than-expected first-half sales.

Another outperformer was Unilever, surging 7% in London after reporting a 4.1% increase in underlying sales in the first half as it held on to full-year guidance.