Europe open: Shares lower on Wall St; Just Eat swallows 'sell' rating
European shares opened lower on Wednesday, as renewed recessionary fears put the brakes on a rally sparked by China relaxing Covid quarantine curbs for visitors.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was down 0.8% in early deals after US shares fell overnight on the back of weak US consumer confidence data. All major regional bourses were lower.
Germany's DAX was down 1.23% ahead of a preliminary reading on German inflation at 1200 GMT.
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will speak at a panel discussion at the annual ECB forum on central banking at 1230 GMT.
“Attempts at sustaining recent rallies were short-lived, with investors unable to avoid the pervasive fear of a global slowdown,” said Interactive Investor head of markets Richard Hunter.
“With the consumer being central to US economic growth, the recent raft of pessimistic readings has led to some concerns that sentiment could become self-fulfilling as consumers hunker down in the face of higher prices, especially fuel and food.”
“The Federal Reserve will of course be aware of the deteriorating sentiment, but for the moment is showing no signs of abandoning its primary objective of battling inflation head-on.”
Just Eat Takeaway stock plunged after Berenberg initiated coverage of the online food delivery platform and rated it a "sell".
Shares in H&M edged higher after the world's second-biggest fashion retailer reported a 33% growth in quarterly profit that beat expectations.