European stock markets closed lower on Wednesday, with the Stoxx 600 recording its worst session since mid-April.
The benchmark Stoxx 600 provisionally ended over 1% lower, with all sectors and major bourses in negative territory. Mining stocks led the losses, down 2.12%.
Mining giant Anglo American was down 3.89% after BHP Group said it did not intend to make a firm acquisition offer ahead of a 5 p.m. deadline for talks.
International Distribution Services, owner of Britain’s Royal Mail, rose 4.36% after accepting a 3.57 billion pound ($4.56 billion) takeover offer from Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky.
The Stoxx had also dropped on Tuesday, closing 0.6% lower, as investors focus on the interest rate outlook and monitor rising global bond yields.
A solid crop of first-quarter and full-year earnings has put the index on course for a monthly gain.
“Earnings season was generally better than feared,” Marcus Morris-Eyton, portfolio manager for Europe and global growth at AllianceBernstein, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Tuesday.
“51% of companies beat expectations, but actually two thirds of companies beat or met expectations, and when you dig beneath the surface what is particularly interesting is the margin strength across European companies during the quarter,” Morris-Eyton said.
“What that’s indicative of is that companies are so far managing to hold on to many of the price increases they pushed through during that Covid period, so as inflationary pressures are reducing, companies are holding on to those pricing gains that are benefiting the margin line,” he added.
However, as the flow of earnings has dried up, attention has shifted back to the plans of the world’s major central banks as they express caution over the inflationary outlook.
Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari told CNBC on Tuesday it would take “many more months of positive inflation data” to give him confidence it is time to cut rates.
European Central Bank Governing Council member Klaas Knot meanwhile said in a London speech that it will “soon” be appropriate to move toward less restrictive monetary policy, but that easing must go “slowly” and “gradually” from there.
Inflation data is due from both the euro zone and U.S. on Friday.
Asia-Pacific markets were mostly lower on Wednesday, while U.S. stocks also retreated.