European equities drop after Trichet comments

Europe’s markets declined Thursday after Jean-Claude Trichet, the president of the European Central Bank, said in a press conference that pressures toward inflation are up and that problems in the financial sectors could last longer than anticipated as the ECB held interest rates steady at 4 percent.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was 0.41 percnet lower to 1,303.53 while the Dax was down 0.25 percent to 6,704.32, the CAC-40 fell 0.32 percent to 4,859.42 and the IBEX dropped 0.67 percent to 13,507.9.

Banks and the retail sector were lower on the session,, while the aerospace sector saw gains and utilities were mixed.

In London the FTSE 100 was down 0.31 percent to 5,965.1 while the FTSE 250 dropped 0.58 percent to 10,013 as the Bank of England cut interest rates to 5 percent.

Airlines and utilities saw gains while oil and other energy stocks were mixed and banks, insurers, retailers, most miners, and real estate developers were all lower.

Tokyo equities markets saw another day of declines after the yen strengthened and machinery orders were reported to have dropped by 12.7 percent in February.

The Nikkei 225 was down 1.27 percent to 12,945.3 while the Topix index fell 1.17 percent to 1,248.07 and the Mothers market dropped 0.84 percent to 585.38.

The drop in equipment orders send machinery manufacturers lower on the session, while the yen’s gains hurt shares of automobile manufacturers.

There were declines in the retail sector on disappointing full-year results from within the sector while broker downgrades hurt real estate developers and airlines declined.

Traders and the oil sector saw gains on higher prices for oil and other commodities.

Elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region, markets were mixed on gains by banks and the energy sector.

Among gainers, South Korea’s Kospi index was up 0.57 percent to 1,764.64 while the Hang Seng was 0.84 percent higher to 224,187.1 in Hong Kong, the Shanghai Composite added 1.69 percent to 3,471.74 and Taiwan’s Taiex gained 1.86 percent to 8,829.4.

India’s Sensex was down 0.6 percent to 15,695.1 and the Straits Times Index was 0.81 percent lower to 3,064.6 in Singapore while in Australia the Sydney Ordinaries fell 1.22 percent to 5,515.5 while the S&P/ASX200 dropped 1.34 percent to 5,446.4.

New York equities markets were higher in early afternoon trade, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.63 percent to 12,606.08 as the Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.41 percent to 2,354.8 and the S&P 500 gained 0.6 percent to 1,362.6.

The Nasdaq was helped by bids news in the pharmaceuticals sector, while the market as a whole was aided by a Labor Department report that showed first time jobless claims dropped by 53,000 last week even though the four week average for initial claims was at a two-and-a-half-year high.

Some retailers saw gains as Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) upped its profit outlook and despite the fact that the discount retailer and other retailers reported that same-store sales didn’t grow as much as anticipated in March.

The semiconductors sector was up on a broker upgrade that cited reduced inventories, while airlines advanced despite crude oil price volatility and more flight cancellations.

Story link: European equities drop after Trichet comments