LONDON — European stocks oscillated on Tuesday but settled provisionally lower at the close.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was down around 0.15%, reversing some earlier gains.
Europe’s largest copper producer Aurubis led the pack, closing 9% up following reports by Bloomberg that it plans to raise premiums by nearly 40%.
Spanish energy utility Naturgy, meanwhile, fell around 4% after it announced it was selling about 3.5% of its shares as it looks to join the MSCI indexes.
In other corporate news, British oil giant Shell said Tuesday that it expects trading in its gas division to be “significantly higher” in the third quarter of this year than the second quarter. However, the firm also said in an update that it was pricing in a $600 million hit from the cancellation of its Rotterdam biofuels project. Shares of Shell ended the session around 1.5% higher.
On the geopolitical front, France is firmly in focus this week following Lecornu’s surprise departure on Monday, which came just one day after he had appointed a new government cabinet and only 27 days into the job.
Markets were rattled by Lecornu’s resignation, although France’s CAC 40 edged higher on Tuesday after falling 1.3% on Monday.
A number of French stocks rebounded on Tuesday, with luxury brands leading the way. Gucci-owner Kering closed out the session up around 5.8% and luxury giant LVMH rose 3.6%. Carmaker Renault, meanwhile, advanced 2.7%.
View of the La Defense business district from the banks of the Seine, with in the center the Coeur Defense tower and the Alto tower.
Henrique Campos | Afp | Getty Images
Elsewhere, a data print on German factory orders majorly disappointed markets. In August, new orders in the manufacturing sector fell by 0.8% from the previous month, according to figures from Germany’s Federal Statistical Office. Analysts polled by Reuters had been expecting a monthly increase of 1.1%.
Global markets
The S&P 500 stalled on Tuesday as Wall Street looked for an update on the U.S. government shutdown, with stock markets relatively flat.
The shutdown has delayed the release of key economic data, such as the September jobs report that was expected Friday, and therefore lessened the amount of information available for the Fed ahead of its next interest rate decision.
A longer shutdown, coupled with this data blackout, comes at a time when risks to the labor market and inflation remain top-of-mind.
In Asia Pacific markets overnight, Japan’s Nikkei 225 hit a record high Tuesday for the second straight session, lifted by the tech rally on Wall Street.
— CNBC’s Pia Singh contributed to this market report.
