Investing.com - European stocks opened lower on Thursday, as investors remained cautious ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s highly-anticipated speech due on Friday.
During European morning trade, the EURO STOXX 50 retreated 0.87%, France’s CAC 40 tumbled 1.04%, while Germany’s DAX 30 lost 0.92%.
Market participants are waiting to see if Yellen will restate the hawkish view of the economy expressed by Fed officials last week or echo the minutes of the Fed’s July meeting, which indicated that officials are divided on when to raise rates.
Financial stocks were also mostly lower, as French lenders BNP Paribas (PA:BNPP) and Societe Generale (PA:SOGN) slid 0.76% and 0.90%, while Germany’s Commerzbank (DE:CBKG) and Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn) lost 0.07% and 0.40%.
Among peripheral lenders, Italy’s Unicredit (MI:CRDI) and Intesa Sanpaolo (MI:ISP) tumbled 0.86% and 0.95% respectively, while Spanish banks Banco Santander (MC:SAN) and BBVA (MC:BBVA) retreated 0.52% and 0.78%.
Elsewhere, Volkswagen (DE:VOWG_p) plummeted 1.21% even as the carmaker said output at its German factories should be back to normal by Monday after the carmaker resolved a dispute with two of its suppliers.
Shares in Renault (PA:RENA) dropped 0.40% after the French government said it had not omitted key elements about its probe into the automaker on emissions in a report.
The comments came after a Financial Times report suggested on August 22 that France's Environment Ministry had left out some key details from their findings.
Meanwhile, Orange SA (PA:ORAN) inched down just 0.07% after the telecom giant denied reports saying it had reached a deal with Vivendi (PA:VIV) to take a stake in its pay-TV Canal Plus and in Telecom Italia (MI:TLIT).
In London, commodity-heavy FTSE 100 retreated 0.53%, weighed by losses in the mining sector.
Shares in Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) slid 0.67% and BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) tumbled 1.28%, while rivals Anglo American (LON:AAL) and Glencore (LON:GLEN) plunged 2.99% and 3.36% respectively.
On Wednesday, Glencore reported a 13% decline in underlying earnings for the first half of 2016.
Financial stocks added to losses, as Barclays (LON:BARC) declined 0.51% and the Royal Bank of Scotland (LON:RBS) retreated 0.60%, while Lloyds Banking (LON:LLOY) slumped 0.74%. HSBC Holdings (LON:HSBA) overperformed, with shares rising 0.29%.
In the U.S., equity markets pointed to a steady to lower open. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures pointed to a 0.14% loss, S&P 500 futures showed a 0.13% fall, while the Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a 0.11% slip.