Europe stocks set to open lower amid global downturn; earning season ramps up

LONDON — European markets are heading for a lower open Thursday, with a flurry of corporate earnings and a selloff on Wall Street in focus.

The U.K.’s FTSE 100 was last seen opening 19 points lower at 8,132 points, according to IG data, with Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 down by 80 points and 45 points, respectively. Italy’s MIB was seen dropping 289 points.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index closed 0.6% lower on Wednesday as second-quarter earnings season ramped up.

After European banks’ turn in the spotlight, investors are now assessing results from companies including consumer goods giants Nestle and Unilever, carmakers Stellantis and Renault, French luxury group Kering and Swiss health-care firm Roche.

Data will be released on German consumer confidence and euro zone and U.K. business activity, ahead of next week’s euro zone gross domestic product second-quarter print.

Attention will also be on the tech-driven selloff in the U.S., which saw the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 record their worst sessions since 2022. Analysts noted a market rotation out of mega-cap stocks into more cyclical areas of the market all through last week, which was compounded Wednesday when earnings from Alphabet and Tesla disappointed.

“Markets saw a massive slump yesterday, as the combination of weak earnings and poor data hit investor sentiment,” Deutsche Bank strategists said in a Thursday note.

“That led to some very big losses, with the Magnificent 7 (-5.88%) posting its worst day since September 2022, leaving it in technical correction territory after falling over -10% from its record just two weeks earlier.”

Asia-Pacific stocks were pulled down by the global action. Japan’s Nikkei 225 tumbled 3%, while the yen strengthened against the U.S. dollar after Reuters reported that the Bank of Japan is expected to discuss a rate hike at its monetary policy meeting next week.