The European markets fell on Thursday after reports showed that China's inflation accelerated more than expected and U.S. jobless claims fell less than forecast.
Consumer prices in China increased 2.7% year-on-year in February, the National Bureau of Statistics said, exceeding expectations for a 2.5% increase following the 1.5% growth in the previous month.
The U.S. Labor Department said in its that initial jobless claims edged down to 462,000 in the week ended March 6th from the previous week's revised figure of 468,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to slip to 460,000 from the 469,000 originally reported for the previous week.
At the same time, the U.S. Labor Department said that continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment help, rose to 4.558 million in the week ended February 27th from the preceding week's revised level of 4.521 million.
Crude for April delivery fell $0.26 to $81.83 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, by the time the European markets closed.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of pan-European blue chips closed 0.27% lower at 1,056.00 points, while the narrower DJ Stoxx 50 index fell 0.41% to 2,578.01 points.
Around Europe, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index dropped 0.41% to 5,617.26, while France's CAC 40 index slipped 0.37% to 3,928.95 and Germany's DAX index fell 0.14% to 5,928.63.
Mining stocks retreated, as Chinese inflation data raised concern about monetary tightening. BHP Billiton, the world's bigbest miner, slipped 2.1%, while Anglo American, the second biggest, fell 1.2% and Xstrata, the world's fourth largest copper producer, dropped 1.6%.
Lagardere, France's biggest publisher, tumbled 7.3% after the company reported full year adjusted earnings that fell from last year and missed analysts' estimate.
On the other hand, Volkswagen, Europe's biggest carmaker, climbed 7.7% after the company said two-month sales jumped 27%, and that it will seek shareholders' approval in April to raise as much as €5 billion in the sale of convertible bonds.
BMW, the world's largest maker of luxury cars, rose 1.3% after the company reported a smaller-than-expected decline in full year profit and maintained its dividend.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com