Europe close: Stocks end day lower as investors take breather
Stocks finished slightly in the red, reversing earlier gains as market optimism regarding the prospect for US tax reforms was tempered somewhat by conflicting reports regarding the exact timing and content of any meaasures.
"It's very unlikely that we get the bill passed before Thanksgiving. Instead we might see something around the Holiday Season or possibly as late as early next year depending on how contentious it is. [...] So all in all expect this to rumble on for some time," said Jim Reid at Deutsche Bank.
Against that backdrop, by the close of trading the benchmark Stoxx 600 was 0.49% or 1.49 points lower at 394.65, alonside a fall of 0.66% or 89.52 points for Germany's Dax to 13,379.27 while the FTSE Mibtel was slipping 0.18% or 40.26 points to 23,962.59.
Euro-dollar on the other hand was on the back foot, trading 0.28% lower at 1.1579, dragged lower by a weaker than forecast reading on Germany's industrial sector.
To take note of, technical analysts at WebFG were pointing out a so-called inverted 'head-and-shoulders' pattern in euro-dollar which, in theory, was pointing towards a drop in the currency pair head towards 1.13.
Brent crude oil futures were also in focus, with the front month contract seeing some profit-taking and moving lower by 0.8% to $63.76 a barrel on the ICE following the previous day's surge.
In economic news, speaking at the European Central Bank's 2nd conference on banking supervision in Frankfurt, chief Mario Draghi called on lenders to further reduce their non-performing loans, arguing that the problem was "not yet solved".
Draghi said it was "crucial" to purseu the needed reforms to "de-link" lenders from their sovereigns, especially when it comes to completing the other pillars of banking union.
As far as major economic data were concerned, German industrial output shrank by 1.6% month-on-month in September (consensus: -0.8%), led by a 4.3% fall in energy production although factory production was also lower, dropping by 1.6%, according to the country´s Ministry of Finance.
Meanwhile, in Italy, ISTAT said retail sales volumes were 0.9% higher on the month in September (consensus: 0.2%).
On the corporate front, BMW was in the news after the carmaker posted a 0.3% dip in third quarter sales to €23.42bn (consensus: €22.97bn).
Over in France, Credit Agricole unit Indosuez announced it was to purchase wealth management outfit Banca Leonardo, for an undisclosed amount.
Another French name, Veolia, reported a dip in nine-month net profits of 1.6% to €406m.