Europe: Stocks fall with Embracer leading losses

EUROPEAN shares declined on Tuesday (May 16), with Swedish gaming firm Embracer tanking after warning on full-year earnings, while retail sales data out of the US and retailer Home Depot’s weak forecast spurred worries about consumer spending.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index closed 0.4 per cent lower, with the retail sector taking the biggest hit.

Home Depot, the largest US home improvement chain, cut its annual sales outlook and projected a steeper-than-expected decline in profit, while data showed US retail sales in April rose at half the pace of market expectations.

“The consumers are tightening their belt a little bit,” said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers.

“But it actually does present a little bit of a challenge in terms of the markets’ viewpoint, because it’s not bad enough to incentivise the Federal Reserve or any of the other global central banks to start easing.”

Meanwhile, nerves about the US debt ceiling standoff, as well as hawkish rhetoric by European Central Bank (ECB) policymakers, have weighed on investor sentiment in recent weeks, overshadowing an upbeat earnings season from European companies.

The ECB will hike its key interest rates by 25 basis points at each of the next two meetings, according to economists polled by Reuters, many of whom also said the bigger risk was rates could go higher still in the future.

Further on the data front, euro zone economic growth was 0.1 per cent quarter-on-quarter in the first three months of the year, with rising employment and a sharp increase in exports boosting the bloc’s trade surplus.

Automakers also dropped 0.9 per cent after weak data from China fuelled concerns about an economic slowdown.

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Among single stocks, Embracer Group tumbled 15.9 per cent to the bottom of the Stoxx 600 on lowering its full-year adjusted Ebit forecast.

Sonova Holding dropped 10.7 per cent after the Swiss hearing aid maker reported full-year core profit below market expectations.

The telecoms index declined 0.9 per cent with Telecom Italia falling 2.2 per cent on mounting uncertainties over the bidding process for the phone group’s landline grid.

In the UK, Vodafone Group shed 7.4 per cent after the company warned of a 1.5-billion euro decline in free cash flow this year, while CEO Margherita Della Valle said she would cut 11,000 jobs over three years.

Autoparts maker Faurecia climbed 3.1 per cent after Goldman Sachs started coverage of the company’s shares with a “buy” rating. REUTERS