European markets live updates: Stocks, data and earnings

Guilermo Felices, global investment strategist at PGIM Fixed Income, discusses rising U.S. Treasury yields and the state of the bond market.

Oil prices surged to their highest level in over a year during Asian trading hours, after crude stocks at a key storage hub fell to their lowest since July last year.

Crude inventories in Cushing, Oklahoma fell to 22 million barrels in the fourth week of September — hovering close to the operational minimum, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). That’s a drop of 943,000 barrels compared to the prior week.

The U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures touched $95.03 per barrel during Asia trading hours, marking the highest since August 2022. They were last at $93.16 a barrel.

Global benchmark Brent were at $97.56 a barrel earlier in the session. They last traded at $96.03 a barrel.

— Lee Ying Shan, Sarah Min

Germany’s federal statistics office said the national inflation rate fell more than expected in September, harmonized with the rest of the Euro zone. Consumer prices rose by 4.3% for the month, compared to September 2022 — sitting at their lowest point since the start of the war in Ukraine.

Analysts polled by Reuters had anticipated German inflation would fall to 4.5% in September, down from 6.4% in August.

Food prices continued to show above-average growth and were up 7.5%, compared to the same period last year. The increase in energy prices slowed considerably at 1%.

The overall slowing in Germany’s consumer price hikes is in line with declines in the Euro zone, where inflation tumbled from 5.2% in August to 4.5% in September.

The new figures make the call for an interest rate pause by the European Central Bank in October even stronger, ING’s Carsten Brzeski said in a note.

“Confidence continues to weaken and inflation has come down, even though it is still nowhere near levels that would bring relief or comfort to the central bank,” he said.

— Hannah Ward-Glenton

Shares of Austria-based chipmaker Ams-Osram tumbled 29% after announcing a plan to reduce its debt pile. The company hopes to raise 2.25 billion euros ($2.37 billion) through a capital increase, new corporate bonds, and by selling a part of its semiconductor business.

“Firstly, we have sharpened our strategy towards structural growth. Secondly, we are cleaning-up our semiconductor portfolio by exiting non-performing businesses. Thirdly, we are making our organization efficient and accountable,” Ams-Osram CEO Aldo Kamper said in an ad hoc announcement to investors.

“We aim to put our balance sheet on a solid footing, such that we can fully concentrate on executing our strategy for growth, higher profitability and monetizing innovation,” he said.

Ams-Osram announced in July profit at the upper end of its guidance for the second quarter, and said it would be exiting some non-core semiconductor businesses to sharpen its portfolio.

— Hannah Ward-Glenton

Schott Pharma debuted on the Frankfurt stock exchange on Thursday at 30 euros per share, trading well above analyst expectations. Shares of the company were up 10% in the first minutes.

The medical vial manufacturer set its final offer price at 27 euros ($28.37) per share Wednesday, after the company announced a range of between 24.50 and 28.50 euros on Sept. 18, giving it a valuation of up to 4.1 billion euros.

The full story can be found here.

— Hannah Ward-Glenton

European markets opened choppy Thursday, reversing negative momentum seen for much of the week.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index opened 0.1% higher, with sectors spread across positive and negative territory. Travel and leisure stocks were down 0.8%, while oil and gas made the biggest gains, up 0.8%.

— Hannah Ward-Glenton

UBS has downgraded the shares of a company, which has around 400,000 customer service agents worldwide, over the “significant uncertainty” it faces from the rise of artificial intelligence.

The investment bank downgraded its rating on the stock from “buy” to “neutral,” citing concerns that new AI tools could significantly disrupt the customer experience industry that the company dominates.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Ganesh Rao

European markets are expected to open higher Thursday.

The U.K.’s FTSE 100 index is expected to open 20 points higher at 7,600, Germany’s DAX up 48 points at 15,259, France’s CAC up 4 points at 7,072 and Italy’s FTSE MIB up 73 points at 28,085, according to data from IG. 

On the data front, preliminary inflation data for Germany and Spain in September are due, as well as Italian consumer confidence for the same month. There are no major earnings.

— Holly Ellyatt