European stocks slip as investors await inflation data; miners drag

By Shashwat Chauhan and Sruthi Shankar

(Reuters) -European stocks slipped on Monday as investors awaited key inflation figures from across the globe this week to gauge the outlook for interest rates, while shares of German group Siemens Energy reversed course after slumping earlier.

Siemens Energy gained 1.1% to 15.7 euros, after having fallen as much as 7%.

The German energy group said problems recently unveiled at its wind turbine unit would cost it 2.2 billion euros ($2.4 billion), well short of worst-case estimates but still casting doubt over the future of the business.

“Ugly and sizeable headline numbers are inevitable as part of this clearing process, it’s clearly a bad situation,” said Philip Buller, analyst at Berenberg.

“However, from a share price standpoint, we appear to have found a floor at around EUR 15.”

However, fell 0.3%, and the broader pan-European edged down 0.2% ahead of inflation readings from Germany, China and the U.S. later this week, all likely to drive expectations on how long interest rates could remain high.

The basic resources index lost 1.0% as shares of Aurubis AG fell 7.8% despite Europe’s largest producer reiterating its forecast for a strong core profit in its current financial year.

“We’ve seen a little bit of negative momentum from these earnings because investors are punishing the fact that these results are actually even more dire than expected, considering that expectations were already pretty low,” said Daniela Hathorn, senior market analyst at Capital.com.

The benchmark STOXX 600 posted its first weekly decline in four on Friday as a mixed U.S. jobs data, slowing business activity across the euro zone and a surprise U.S. credit rating downgrade all dented the mood.

Meanwhile, a Sentix survey showed investor morale in the euro zone unexpectedly rose in August, ending three consecutive months of decline as inflation lost some of its explosive power, but there are no signs of a lasting turnaround in sentiment.

Scout24 SE jumped 7% after the online property platform raised its full-year guidance, while PostNL climbed 6.4% after the Dutch postal firm lifted its 2023 operating profit guidance.

OHB soared 31.7% after the German space company announced a voluntary public tender offer by US investment company KKR for its outstanding shares.

Deutsche Boerse (ETR:) slipped 1.4% after UBS downgraded the German bourse operator to “neutral” from “buy.”