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Mixed results
from the continent's banking sector and losses in the mining
sector pushed the pan-European STOXX 600 index down 0.6 percent.
The losses came after oil prices fell 1.18 percent on Wednesday
as investors grew increasingly doubtful that OPEC members will
agree to cut output and as U.S. inventories staged a
surprisingly large increase. [nL4N1CW19L]
Brent crude futures were down 73 cents at 1100 GMT, closing in
on $50 a barrel for the first time in three weeks.
"There have been rumors that Russia may not be on board with the
production cuts and Iraq is also apparently seeking an
exemption. The market is starting to question whether the OPEC
agreement reached a couple of weeks ago is really as solid as
originally thought," Investec economist Ryan Djajasaputra said.
Iraq, OPEC's second biggest oil producer, wants to be exempt
from the cut, arguing it needs the revenues to fight Islamic
State.
Another factor behind European and Asian stock price weakness
was disappointing results and forecasts from U.S. companies on
Tuesday - most notably with Apple recording declining iPhones
sales.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slid
0.87 percent, while Japan's Nikkei reversed earlier losses to
close up 0.15 percent as the yen pulled back.
European equities were also edgy as investors digested a slew of
earnings reports, with commodity-related stocks and with British
bank Lloyds under pressure, though well-received results from
Santander buoyed Spanish stocks.
Antofagasta led the losses in the mining sector, dropping 6.5
percent.
CARNEY EFFECT
In currency markets, sterling recovered from Monday's lows after
Bank of England (BoE) governor Mark Carney said in a speech the
central bank could not ignore the effect of sterling's slide on
inflation.
This increased expectations that policymakers would leave rates
unchanged next week, rather than cut them as many had expected.
Sterling rose 0.2 percent against the dollar to $1.2209, coming
off Monday's trough of $1.2081, which was the lowest level since
the Oct. 7 "flash crash".
The euro, which slid to a 7 1/2-month low of $1.0851 on Tuesday,
also rose on Wednesday and was up 0.32 percent to 1.0921 at 1100
GMT.
With investors looking ahead to U.S. third-quarter gross
domestic product data on Friday, the dollar index, which tracks
the greenback against a basket of six global peers, fell 0.20
percent to 98.514.
It hit its highest level since Feb. 1 on Tuesday as traders saw
a better than 78 percent chance of an interest rise hike by the
Federal Reserve in December, according to CME Group's FedWatch
tool.
(Reporting by Abhinav Ramnarayan, Additional reporting by
Nichola Saminather and Ethan Lou)
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