Europe close: Stocks dip, weighed down by negative tone on Wall Street

(Sharecast News) - European stocks were a tad lower on Thursday even after it was reported that eurozone inflation eased in January, weighed down by the negative tone on Wall Street. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index dipped 0.37% to 483.86 with all major markets lower.

Spain's IBEX gave back an early rally, slipping by 0.63%.

Britain's FTSE 100 also reversed its earlier outperformance to end the day 0.11% lower.

In economic news, eurozone inflation in seasonally adjusted terms fell at a month-on-month pace of 0.4%. That served to push the annual rate of increase in headline CPI down by one tenth of a percentage point from the month before to reach 2.8% - just as expected by economists.

At the core level however, which excludes alcohol, energy, food and tobacco, CPI dipped from 3.4% to 3.3%, against forecasts for a decline to 3.2%.

In a separated announcement, joblessness in the single currency bloc was little changed at the end of 2023. According to Eurostat, the ranks of the unemployed contained approximately 10.91m euro area residents in December, versus 10.93m during the previous month.

That meant that the rate of unemployment was unchanged at 6.4%.

Earlier in the day, a widely-watched survey revealed the slump in the eurozone's manufacturing sector eased in January, with factory output and new orders declining at their softest rates since last April, according to PMI survey data.

In equity news Volvo Cars shares surged more than 20% after the Swedish automaker said it will stop funding subsidiary Polestar Automotive.

Swedish medical equipment maker Getinge dropped 12% after reporting a smaller than expected rise in fourth-quarter earnings.

BNP Paribas shares fell more than 9% after the French bank reported a quarterly sales miss and pushed back a profit target.