FX.co ★ European Stocks Pull Back from Near 2-Month Highs

The STOXX 50 and STOXX 600 indices each decreased by 0.2% on Wednesday, pulling back from almost two-month peaks achieved the previous day. This decline reflects the market's anticipation of new developments as traders face uncertainties due to stalled trade negotiations, disappointing economic indicators, and mixed corporate earnings reports. Attention is focused on the current G7 finance ministers' meeting, where any hints that a weaker U.S. dollar might facilitate trade talks are keenly anticipated. In the UK, a rise in inflation to 3.5% has led investors to reconsider the likelihood of rate cuts by the Bank of England. In the business sector, JD Sports witnessed a more than 7% drop in share value following a reported 2% decrease in underlying sales. Similarly, Julius Baer's shares fell 5.5% after announcing a CHF 130 million writedown, and Marks & Spencer saw a decline of over 3% after acknowledging a recent cyberattack that could potentially reduce operating profit by £300 million. Conversely, Infineon experienced a 1.6% increase after revealing a new partnership with Nvidia aimed at developing innovative power delivery architectures for AI data centers.