14th Oct 2025 12:07
(Alliance News) - Stock prices in Europe were on the decline in early afternoon dealings on Tuesday, with US-China tensions weighing on sentiment, while the first batch of reports from the new US earnings season rolled in.
The FTSE 100 index was down 39.19 points, 0.4%, at 9,403.68. The FTSE 250 was 114.48 points lower, 0.5%, at 21,949.84, and the AIM All-Share gave back 3.72 points, 0.5%, at 788.75.
The Cboe UK 100 was down 0.5% at 940.10, the Cboe UK 250 was 0.7% lower at 19,229.16, and the Cboe Small Companies was down 0.3% at 17,711.60.
In Paris, the CAC 40 and the DAX 40 in Frankfurt each shed 1.1%.
"The FTSE 100 is getting hit with a sell off in the material sector, financials and the energy sector are also lower. This suggests that investors in European stocks are concerned about economic growth, and that is hindering a resumption in the stock market uptrend," XTB analyst Kathleen Brooks commented.
Metlen Energy fell 4.2% in London, while miners Anglo American and Glencore shed 3.6% and 2.8%. The trio were among the worst large-cap performers.
Brooks added: "President Trump is expected to meet President Xi in two weeks' time in South Korea, and we expect the rhetoric could be ramped up ahead of this meeting, with both sides trying to gain leverage. This could trigger some volatility in risky assets in the coming days. However, investors may still hold out hope for a trade deal between China and the US, as it would ultimately be mutually beneficial for both sides, it could also unleash a mega Santa rally before the end of Q4."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is called down 0.6%, the S&P 500 1.0% lower and the Nasdaq Composite down 1.3%. The trio had risen on Monday, but failed to claw back all of the losses suffered on Friday.
Pepperstone analyst Michael Brown commented: "There is still a lingering risk, even if it's a very slim possibility, that Trump does indeed follow through on the threats made at the back end of last week. That's largely why we've, broadly speaking, only unwound about half of the damage wrought on Friday."
Johnson & Johnson was up 0.2% in pre-market dealings in New York. The pharmaceutical firm upped its annual guidance, now predicting reported sales growth in the range of 5.4% to 5.9% for the full year, its outlook raised from 5.1% to 5.6%.
Third-quarter revenue and profit climbed and it announced a plan to separate its Orthopaedics unit.
"The intended separation would further strengthen the focus of Johnson & Johnson as an innovation powerhouse, serving areas of high unmet needs across Innovative Medicine and MedTech, accelerating the ongoing shift of the company's MedTech portfolio toward higher-growth and higher-margin markets," J&J said.
The standalone orthopaedics business would operate as DePuy Synthes.
JPMorgan Chase added 1.3% in pre-market trade. The bank's third quarter net income advanced 12% on-year to USD14.39 billion from USD12.90 billion.
But Chief Executive Jamie Dimon cautioned: "There continues to be a heightened degree of uncertainty stemming from complex geopolitical conditions, tariffs and trade uncertainty, elevated asset prices and the risk of sticky inflation."
However, he stressed that while there have been "some signs of a softening, particularly in job growth, the US economy generally remained resilient."
The yield on the US 10-year Treasury was quoted at 4.01% early Tuesday afternoon, easing from 4.04% at the time of the London equities close on Monday. The yield on the US 30-year Treasury was tamer at 4.61% compared to 4.62%.
Sterling fell to USD1.3259 midday Tuesday, from USD1.3331 late Monday. Against the dollar, the euro fell to USD1.1555 from USD1.1569. Versus the yen, the dollar traded at JPY151.95, easing from JPY152.30.
The UK unemployment rate unexpectedly rose in the three months to August, numbers on Tuesday showed, though total earnings growth was higher than predicted.
According to the Office for National Statistics, the jobless rate was 4.8% in the three months to August, rising from 4.7% in the three months to July.
It had been expected to stay at 4.7%, according to consensus cited by FXStreet.
The ONS said payrolled employees in the UK fell by 93,000 on-year in August alone but did rise by 10,000 on-month. The early estimate for September, which the ONS warns is likely to be revised, payrolled employees fell by 100,000 on-year and by 10,000 on-month to 30.3 million.
"The estimated number of vacancies in the UK fell by 9,000 (1.3%) on the quarter, to 717,000, in July to September 2025. This is the 39th consecutive period where vacancy numbers have dropped compared with the previous three months," the ONS said.
Annual growth in regular earnings, so excluding bonuses, was 4.7% in the three months to August, easing from 4.8% in the three months to July. The figure landed in line with consensus.
Total pay growth, however, surprisingly accelerated to 5.0% from 4.8%. It had been expected to cool to 4.7%.
Analysts at Lloyds Bank commented: "In the labyrinth of UK labour market statistics there is usually scope for similar series to throw up conflicting signals. And so it was with the pay growth data in the latest report. At the headline whole economy including bonus level average earnings rose 5.0% 3m/y in August, up 0.2ppts from July. But the private sector ex-bonus measure saw growth dip 0.3ppts to 4.4% 3m/y, and crucially that is the BoE's preferred measure."
Gold burst through the USD4,100 an ounce mark on Monday and advanced further Tuesday.
It traded at USD4,129.01 an ounce, rising from USD4,093.56 at the time of the London equities close on Monday. It had earlier on Tuesday set a new record high of USD4,179.75 an ounce. A barrel of Brent fell to USD61.50 from USD63.40.
BP shares fell 2.2%. It said third quarter performance was driven by higher-than-expected upstream volumes, robust refining margins although the oil trading result is expected to be "weak".
In a trading update, BP said upstream production in the third quarter is now expected to be higher compared to the prior quarter, with production higher in both oil production & operations, primarily higher gas production in bpx energy, and in gas & low carbon energy.
In gas & low carbon energy, realisations are expected to have an impact of around USD100 million, compared to the prior quarter, including changes in non-Henry Hub natural gas marker prices. The gas marketing and trading result is expected to be average.
In oil production & operations, realisations are expected to be broadly flat compared to the prior quarter, including the impact of the price lags on BP's production in the Gulf of America and the United Arab Emirates. Compared to the prior quarter, exploration write-offs are expected to be around USD100 million higher.
In customers & products, results are expected to be influenced by seasonally higher volumes with broadly flat fuels margins, stronger realised refining margins in the range of USD300 million to USD400 million and a significantly lower level of turnaround activity, partly offset by environmental compliance costs and the impact of unplanned Whiting outage due to exceptional weather conditions.
Bellway rose 5.7%. It announced a GBP150 million share buyback as it called for supportive government policy to drive a meaningful and sustained increase in housing output. The buyback will have an initial tranche of GBP75 million.
Bellway noted it faces some "near-term market challenges", and said the government needs to drive through planning reform and address affordability constraints facing first-time buyers.
"Customer demand has been affected by ongoing affordability constraints and uncertainties about potential taxation changes in the government's budget in November," the firm added.
The FTSE 250-listing said pretax profit rose 21% to GBP221.9 million in the financial year to July 31 from GBP183.7 million the year prior, as revenue climbed 17% to GBP2.78 billion from GBP2.38 billion.
Elsewhere, Robert Walters added 10%. The recruiter said market conditions "remain fragile" and it continues to expect that a recovery will only "develop very gradually".
Net fee income in the third quarter of the year declined 13% annually to GBP69.6 million, it says. Year-to-date, it is down 15% to GBP209.6 million.
"Our year-on-year fee income performance during the third quarter improved slightly compared to the second, albeit with some divergence across our geographic portfolio. Encouragingly, Asia Pacific, our largest segment by net fee income, saw broad-based improvement and UK specialist recruitment grew year-on-year. Europe, however, continued to be challenging. Whilst we are seeing signs of sustained improvement in a select number of hiring markets, overall conditions globally remain fragile. As such, our planning assumption continues to be that recovery in hiring markets will develop very gradually," CEO Toby Fowlston said.
By Eric Cunha, Alliance News news editor
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