On Tuesday, the main stock index in Europe snapped its five-day winning streak, pulled lower by heavyweight energy stocks, as investors sized up domestic economic data and braced for the meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole this week.
The STOXX 600 pan-European index closed down 0.5%, wiping out early gains and falling from the close to 3-week high level reached earlier in the day. All the regional bourses also dropped into negative territory.
An early decline in oil prices pushed the energy sector 2% lower to a more than one-week low, although the commodity’s prices recovered gradually during the day.
A poll by Reuters indicated that European shares will rise slightly by year-end due to central bank interest rate cuts, although strategists remained cautious on their outlook for the region’s largest companies.
Both the blue-chip STOXX50E and STOXX 600 are up more than 7% so far this year, after surviving recent volatility that resulted in the benchmark index slipping below the key 500-point level at the beginning of the month on fears over a potential U.S. recession.
Investors are now awaiting the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting in July due on Wednesday and comments by the US central bank’s Chair Jerome Powell at the Jackson Hole conference on Friday.
