Euro Stocks Flat Amid Inflation Worries and Slowing US Growth
European stock markets remained largely unchanged on Wednesday as investors digested a slew of economic releases from both Europe and the US.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index traded flat, reversing an earlier gain of 0.7% that had pushed it toward one-week highs.
Benchmarks in Germany's DAX and London's FTSE 100 also gave back their intraday advances to trade virtually unchanged.
The market sentiment took a turn for the worse after preliminary consumer price data revealed inflation accelerated at a faster pace than expected across several major Eurozone economies in September, driven primarily by the ongoing energy-price shock stemming from escalating Middle East hostilities.
The inflation surge in Germany, France, Spain, and Italy increases the likelihood that the European Central Bank (ECB) will be forced to raise interest rates again to prevent high inflation from becoming embedded across the single-currency bloc.