Investing.com - European stocks were lower on Thursday, as uncertainty dominated after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s first press conference since his victory in November.
During European morning trade, the EURO STOXX 50 retreated 0.50%, France’s CAC 40 declined 0.48%, while Germany’s DAX 30 dropped 0.52%.
Market sentiment weakened after Donald Trump failed to offer details on his promises to boost fiscal spending and cut taxes at a highly-anticipated news conference on Wednesday.
Financial stocks were broadly lower, as French lenders BNP Paribas (PA:BNPP) and Societe Generale (PA:SOGN) lost 0.28% and 1%, while Germany’s Commerzbank (DE:CBKG) and Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn) fell 0.29% and 0.49%.
Among peripheral lenders, Italy’s Unicredit (MI:CRDI) and Intesa Sanpaolo (MI:ISP) tumbled 0.91% and 1.14% respectively, while Spanish banks Banco Santander (MC:SAN) and BBVA (MC:BBVA) dropped 0.77% and 1.11%.
On the upside, Lufthansa AG (DE:LHAG) jumped 1.29% after reporting on Tuesday a 1.8% increase in 2016 passengers, even though Ryanair overtook the company as Europe’s largest airline in terms of the number of people it carried.
Separately, Deutsche Telekom (DE:DTEGn) and Inmarsat PLC (LON:ISA) launched on Wednesday a new Wi-Fi platform for passengers on Lufthansa Group flights within Europe.
Shares in Deutsche Telekom were down 1.47% on Thursday morning, while Inmarsat plunged 4.04%.
In London, FTSE 100 fell 0.29%, led by Tesco (LON:TSCO), whose shares plummeted 2.66% even as the supermarket chain said that underlying sales increased by 0.7% during the Christmas period.
Financial stocks were also mostly lower, as the Royal Bank of Scotland (LON:RBS) edged down 0.13% and Barclays (LON:BARC) slipped 0.15%, while HSBC Holdings (LON:HSBA) retreated 0.68%. Lloyds Banking (LON:LLOY) overperformed, with shares easing up 0.09%.
Meanwhile, mining stocks were broadly higher on the commodity-heavy index. Shares in Glencore (LON:GLEN) climbed 0.84% and Anglo American (LON:AAL) advanced 0.94%, while BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) and Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) rallied 1.20% and 1.34% respectively.
Marks and Spencer (LON:MKS) was one of the top performers on the index, with shares up 2.82% after the retailer kept its fiscal-year guidance unchanged and announced a better-than-expected performance in both clothing and home-product sales for its third quarter.
In the U.S., equity markets pointed to a lower open. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures pointed to a 0.29% slip, S&P 500 futures showed a 0.36% decline, while the Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a 0.28% loss.