European shares slipped on Tuesday as investors feared that soaring commodity prices would hamper a recovery in corporate profit.
US stock indexes were trading largely flat in a choppy session on similar worries over the impact of rising inflation on upcoming third-quarter earnings.
Dublin
The Iseq fell 0.35 per cent, broadly in line with the performance of its European peers.
Ryanair fell more than 2 per cent to finish the session at €16.64, on a read-through from grim quarterly financial results posted by its rival EasyJet. Ryanair was also in the news after it was reported as having denied bookings to customers who had previously been refunded the cost of pandemic flights using credit card charge-backs.
The measures in Budget 2022 to stimulate further housebuilding and ease the property and rental crises had little or no effect on listed Irish property stocks. Hibernia REIT finished the session ahead by 1 per cent to €1.24, while both Glenveagh Homes and Cairn Homes rose 0.18 per cent to €1.11 and €1.12 respectively.
London
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index ended 0.2 per cent lower, snapping its three-day winning streak, with miners and travel and leisure stocks among the top drags.
EasyJet dropped 3.6 per cent as pandemic uncertainty and travel bans pushed the company to post an expected headline loss of between £1.13 billion and £1.17 billion (€1.34 billion and €1.38 billion)for the 12 months ended September.
The airline’s capacity is set to be up to 70 per cent of 2019 levels in winter, even as the company increased the number of seats it was offering. In the past three months, capacity has reached 58 per cent of where it was two years ago.
Shares in the Hut Group plummeted 35 per cent as bosses spoke to shareholders for the company's first capital markets day since it listed in September 2020. The meeting was meant to reassure shareholders after a tough month for the firm's share price. But instead it spooked them. The drop started at about 3pm on Tuesday afternoon.
The company is facing concerns over proposals to spin off its beauty arm, and its tech platform.
Europe
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was down 0.1 per cent, hovering about 4 per cent below its August peak. Germany’s DAX extended losses to a third straight session, down 0.3 per cent, a similar fall to the Cac 40 in Paris.
Mining stocks gave up some of Monday’s strong gains as a rally in commodity prices eased, while automakers and travel sectors shed about 0.5 per cent.
Airbus slipped 0.5 per cent as the world's largest planemaker's deliveries were flat in September versus the previous month.
Danish freight forwarder DSV inched up 1.6 per cent after it raised its earnings expectations for the year, citing brisk business activity in the third quarter and continued tight capacity in the market.
Automakers were down 0.3 per cent as data showed auto sales in China – a major trading partner of Europe – slumped 19.6 per cent in September as a prolonged global shortage of semiconductors and a domestic power crunch disrupt production. Defensive sectors such as utilities and real estate were the among the few gainers.
New York
Eight of the 11 major S&P 500 sector rose, led by defensive utilities, real estate and consumer staples shares, which investors prefer during economic uncertainty.
The communication services sector dropped 1.2 per cent, while mega-cap growth names including Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet and Facebook weighed the most on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.
But Tesla added 1.8 per cent after data showed the electric vehicle maker sold 56,006 China-made vehicles in September, the highest since it started production in Shanghai about two years ago. Shares of JPMorgan were down 0.4 per cent, with the banking sub-index easing after hitting a record high recently.
– Additional reporting: Reuters/PA
