European stocks saw limited movement on Thursday following softer U.S. consumer inflation data, which has renewed discussions about potential Federal Reserve rate cuts. The dollar weakened, and U.S. Treasury yields dropped to six-week lows as investors eagerly awaited insights from Federal Reserve officials on future rate policies.
In Europe, the European Central Bank is anticipated to begin reducing interest rates from their current record highs starting in June, with expectations of up to three rate cuts this year.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index decreased by 0.2 percent, settling at 523.70, after nine consecutive days of gains. Germany's DAX declined by 0.2 percent, France's CAC 40 slid by 0.5 percent, and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 dropped by 0.3 percent.
Shares of Eni fell by 2.2 percent following an announcement from the Italian Economy Ministry (Ministero dell'Economia e delle Finanze or MEF) about the sale of approximately 2.8 percent of the energy company's share capital, totaling around 1.4 billion euros.
Swiss Re, a reinsurance firm, saw its shares rally by 3.5 percent, while Zurich Insurance's shares rose by 2 percent, buoyed by positive first-quarter earnings reports. Dutch insurer Aegon NV's shares increased by over 1 percent following news of a share buyback.
BP Plc shares fell by 2.1 percent in London as the company went ex-dividend. Meanwhile, easyJet's shares slumped by 6 percent after the airline posted a pre-tax loss of £350 million ($443 million) for the first half of the year, which was slightly larger than expected.
BT's shares surged by 11 percent after the company's new CEO outlined a strategy to more than double its free cash flow over the next five years. Future Plc's shares jumped by 13.7 percent following the announcement of a share buyback program worth up to 45 million pounds ($57.1 million), coupled with news of a return to growth in the past quarter.
Despite reporting a strong first-half performance, shares of software company Sage Group dropped by nearly 13 percent. Siemens' shares in Germany fell by 5.4 percent after the company reported a decline in second-quarter earnings for its industrial business.
Deutsche Telekom's shares decreased by about 1 percent as the company disclosed an 87.1 percent plunge in first-quarter net profit to 1.98 billion euros from the previous year's 15.36 billion euros.
