Bottles of Roundup, a brand owned by Bayer, are seen for sale in a store in New York City. June 30, 2022.
Andrew Kelly | Reuters
LONDON — European stocks ticked higher on Tuesday, with shares struggling to find momentum after a broad sell-off marked the first day of the new month.
By 12:02 p.m. in London (7:02 a.m. ET), the pan-European Stoxx 600 was up 0.3%, with all major regional bourses in positive territory.
Utilities stocks were among those seeing the biggest gains in Europe on Tuesday, with the Stoxx Europe Utilities index adding almost 0.9% at midday. The sector is widely seen as a stable bet in times of market turbulence.
Winners in the index included wind energy giant Orsted, up 2.9%, and electric utilities firm EDP, which gained 1.6%.
Elsewhere, the FTSE 350 Banks index pared earlier gains to add 0.3%, after the Bank of England trimmed its estimate — for the first time in a decade — of how much capital banks operating in the U.K. need as a buffer.
The central bank also said all of the U.K.’s major banks had passed its stress tests, which simulates economic shocks and their potential impact on lenders.
“The results of the 2025 Bank Capital Stress Test indicate that the UK banking system would be able to continue to support the economy even if economic conditions turn out materially worse than expected,” the Bank of England said in its report on the results.
British banks notching the biggest gains on Tuesday included Metro Bank, up 1.7%, and Lloyds Banking Group, last seen trading 1.5% higher.
Tuesday’s moves follow a gloomy start to the last trading month of the year in which investors are now expecting the U.S. Federal Reserve to cut interest rates when it meets on Dec. 9-10. Traders are pricing in an 87.2% chance of a quarter-point rate cut, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.
The Bank of England is also closely monitoring the Fed for any potential spillover effects, Megan Greene, who sits on the Monetary Policy Committee at the Bank of England, told CNBC Monday.
“About half the moves in our curve actually are generated entirely outside the U.K.,” Greene told CNBC’s Ritika Gupta on Monday.
The BOE has not committed to cutting rates in December but economists broadly expect the central bank to do so giving signs of cooling inflation, likely to be encouraged further by disinflationary measures in last week’s Autumn Budget, as well as lackluster growth and a weakening labor market.
In corporate news, German biotech giant Bayer won support from the Trump administration on Monday to curb U.S. litigation related to its Roundup weedkiller. Shares of the company were last seen 11.9% higher.
The company faces thousands of lawsuits alleging the weedkiller has caused health issues including cancer and has already paid billions of dollars to claimants.
U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer urged the Supreme Court on Monday to limit the lawsuits brought against Bayer, supporting the firm’s argument that federal law on pesticides preempts claims made under state law.
“The support of the U.S. Government is an important step and good news for U.S. farmers, who need regulatory clarity,” Bayer CEO Bill Anderson said in a statement on Tuesday. “The stakes could not be higher as the misapplication of federal law jeopardizes the availability of innovative tools for farmers and investments in the broader U.S. economy.”
Bayer acquired Roundup maker Monsanto for more than $60 billion in 2018.
Shares of Spanish lender Santander rose 1.6% after the company sold a 3.5% stake in its Polish subsidiary Santander Polska for around $473 million. The deal leaves the bank with a 9.7% stake in its Polish unit, according to news agency Reuters.
Euro zone inflation edges higher; UK prices cool
Also on Tuesday, a flash inflation print for the euro zone showed inflation moved slightly higher to 2.2% in November. The figure came in slightly above economists’ expectations.
In the U.K., data from the British Retail Consortium showed that in the first week of November, in-store prices fell 0.6% year-on-year, with food inflation falling to 3% from 3.7% a month earlier.
Meanwhile, Nationwide’s House Price Index, published Tuesday, showed British house price growth slowed in the year to November. The average house price rose 1.8% year-on-year to hit £272,998 ($360,083) compared to annual growth of 2.4% in October.
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