MW: European stocks on track for second day in the red
European stocks fell Tuesday, with a mixed round of corporate earnings reports and a drop in oil prices putting the market on course for a second straight losing session.
The Stoxx Europe 600 SXXP, -0.30% was down 0.4% at 374.51. No sectors traded higher. The health care, oil and gas SXEP, -1.15% and basic materials sectors SXPP, -1.67% posted the sharpest losses. The index on Monday fell 0.4%.
Oil shares on Tuesday fell as prices CLZ5, -1.11% slumped more than 1% to trade below $44 a barrel. Prices were under pressure before the release of U.S. inventory figures later Tuesday. An increase in weekly stockpiles would underscore worries about persistent expansion in supply and weakening demand for oil.
In the energy group, oil producer OMV AG OMV, -1.75% fell 3.2%, Tullow Oil PLC TLW, -6.21% fell 5% and Spain’s Repsol SA REP, -2.34% gave up 2.2%.
But BP PLC BP., +1.03% BP, -1.88% shares managed to outperform, rising 1.4% after the oil major’s third-quarter replacement cost profit of $1.23 billion came in better than analyst expectations of $1.2 billion. But weak oil prices prompted BP to say its capital expenditure will decline for the year.
The higher move for BP didn’t help push the U.K.’s FTSE 100 UKX, -0.35% higher. The commodities-heavy index fell 0.4% to 6,393.73.
U.K. stocks remained lower after a preliminary estimate of third-quarter growth came in slightly below expectations. Quarter-over-growth of 0.5% was under the 0.6% rise expected in a FactSet poll of analysts. Year-over-year growth of 2.3% skirted below the expected reading of 2.4%.
In Frankfurt, the DAX 30 DAX, -0.07% shed 0.1% at 10,798.01. In Paris, the CAC 40 PX1, -0.17% fell 0.2% to 4,899.85.
Among individual movers, Novartis AG NOVN, -1.49% shares fell 1.4% after the drug maker’s third-quarter profit fell 42%, hurt as the company agreed to settle claims that it used rebates to get specialty pharmacies to increase prescriptions.
BASF BAS, -3.58% fell 4% after the German chemical maker cut its 2015 outlook, citing weak global economic growth, low oil prices and a recent asset swap with Russia’s OAO Gazprom as reasons for the lowered forecast.
