European markets ended notably lower on Thursday as worries about inflation, falling crude oil prices and concerns about rising delta variant of the coronavirus cases weighed on stocks.
Weak data from China, a profit warning from Siemens Gamesa, and possibility of the Bank of England tightening its monetary policy sooner than expected contributed as well to markets' decline.
Markets also reacted to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's Congressional testimony. Powell told the U.S. House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday that the U.S. economy is "a ways off" from where it needs to be for the Fed to tighten its easy monetary policy.
The pan European Stoxx 600 slid 0.95%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 ended down by 1.12%, Germany's DAX lost 1.01% and France's CAC 40 declined 0.99%, while Switzerland's SMI drifted down 0.55%.
Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain and Sweden ended with sharp to moderate losses.
Czech Republic ended stronger by about 3.3%. Turkey also closed on a strong note.
In the UK market, Just Eat Takeaway plunged more than 9%. Next ended nearly 5% down. AstraZeneca, Taylor Wimpey, JD Sports Fashion, IAG, Melrose Industries, Barratt Developments, Associated British Foods, BP, Persimmon, Royal Dutch Shell, Royal Mail, GlaxoSmithKline and WPP lost 2 to 4%.
Avast Plc shares soared more than 18% after the company confirmed it was in advanced merger talks with US peer NortonLifeLock.
Experian rallied sharply after raising its full-year guidance. Prudential, Spirax-Sarco Engineering and Kingfisher gained 1 to 2.5%.
In the French market, Unibail Rodamco and Atos both ended lower by more than 3%. Technip, Renault, STMicroElectronics, Valeo, Essilor, Sanofi and Safran lost 2 to 2.5%. Publicis Groupe, Faurecia, Sodexo and LVMH also ended notably lower.
In Germany, Thyssenkrupp declined nearly 5%. Infineon Technologies, Volkswagen, Frensenius, Fresenius Medical Care, Adidas and RWE ended lower by 2 to 3%. Siemens, Continental, Puma and BMW also declined sharply.
German energy group Siemens Energy plunged 11% after the company said it expects to miss its margin guidance for the full fiscal year.
Its Spanish subsidiary Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy plummeted more than 14% after saying it expects a fiscal 2021 loss due to a sharp increase in raw material prices.
In economic news, the UK employment increased in three months to May signaling that the labor market continues to recover, the Office for National Statistics said. There was a quarterly increase in the employment rate of 0.1 percentage points to 74.8%.
At the same time, the ILO unemployment rate decreased 0.2 percentage points to 4.8%. In three months to April, the jobless rate was 4.7%.
China's gross domestic product rose 7.9 percent year-on-year in the second quarter, data from China's National Bureau of Statistics showed. That was slightly lower than forecasts. The GDP print beat forecasts on a quarterly basis.
Traders are also digested a slew of U.S. economic data, including a report from the Federal Reserve showing industrial production increased by less than expected in the month of June.
The Fed said industrial production rose by 0.4% in June after climbing by a downwardly revised 0.7% in May. Economists had expected industrial production to increase by 0.7%.
The Labor Department's data showed first-time claims for unemployment benefits decreased to 360,000 in the week ended July 10th, in line with economist estimates. That was down 26,000 from the previous week's revised level of 386,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to dip to 360,000 from the 373,000 originally reported for the previous week.
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