Major Europe markets end lower, but Madrid rises

Europe’s major stock markets ended lower yesterday as investors digested key economic data and US bank earnings, dealers said.
London equities slipped into negative territory despite the pound sliding.
News that annual British inflation jumped in September to 3.0% — the highest level in more than five years — was outweighed by comments by central bankers they were in no rush to raise interest rates.
Frankfurt also drifted lower at the end of trading, despite news that German investor confidence inched upwards in October, according to the ZEW institute’s headline barometer.
During the session it rose to less than two points shy of its record high before sliding back.
Madrid rose 0.6% as a judge ordered the detention of two Catalan separatist leaders.
Wall Street was mostly flat approaching midday, as US banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley posted their third-quarter results, although the Dow broke the 23,000 points level for the first time.
The market’s muted response to mostly better-than-expected earnings reports likely shows that the “good earnings news was already priced in to the stocks and the broader market,” said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare.
“The inference is that there isn’t much selling pressure no matter the news, as market participants are holding fast to the supports of low interest rates, continued earnings growth, and the prospect of tax reform that is leading them to defer taking long-term capital gains.”
Netflix shed 1.3% after reporting that quarterly profits jumped to $129mn, more than double that of the year-ago period.
The streaming company announced plans to boost spending on original content to $7bn to $8bn in 2018, up from $6bn in 2017.
Goldman Sachs also fell 1.3% while Morgan Stanley gained 0.9%. New York’s three main indices had chalked up yet more fresh peaks on Monday thanks to a rally in banks and hopes that Donald Trump can still push through his economic agenda despite a series of setbacks for his legislative programme.
Mike van Dulken, head of research at Accendo Markets said that European equities are “holding close to their highs as investors continue to look through geopolitical risk, increasingly at ease with the prospect of tighter monetary policy.
“Confidence is high of yet another supportive earnings season on both sides of the Atlantic, as are hopes of US congressional and UK/EU deadlocks being broken, allowing Trump to deliver on tax reform and the door to be opened for further Brexit negotiations,” he added.
Asian equities diverged yesterday as traders took a breather after recent strong gains, with more records on Wall Street unable to spur strong buying.
Tokyo however rose 0.4% to chalk up an 11th straight gain.
In London, the FTSE 100 closed down 0.1 at 7,516.17 points; Frankfurt — DAX 30 fell 0.07 at 12,995.06 points; Paris — CAC 40 ended down 0.03% at 5,361.37 points and Madrid — IBEX 35 rose 0.4% at 10,216.80 points yesterday.