European stocks continue to decline in early trading on Thursday. Investors fear of a slowdown in the world economy and are concerned about the uncertainty regarding the timing of US interest rates rise, reported Bloomberg.
The composite index of the largest companies of Stoxx Europe 600 dropped by 0.68%, to 378.71 points.
Germany's DAX fell by this time 0.65%, the French CAC 40 by 0.47%, and British FTSE 100 by 0.36%. The index of the largest enterprises in the Eurozone - Euro Stoxx lost 0.55%.
The FTSE 100 decrease continues for the eighth session. The last time such a long continuous decline was registered in November 2011, according to MarketWatch. In particular, the shares of oil producers drop due to fall in fuel prices to multi-year lows.
Some Fed leaders expressed doubt that the US economy is strong enough to move to an increase in interest rates, is said in the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting on July 28-29, made public on Wednesday. This weakened expectations that borrowing costs in the country will be raised at the next meeting in September.
After the publication of the minutes of the Fed meeting, US futures market is now appreciating the likelihood of raising the base rate at its next meeting in September to 36%, whereas previously this figure was 50%.
"There were formed a combination of factors which moves the market down: a slowdown of the Chinese economy, the decline of the Chinese market, oil sales and fears that all this will spread to the US and Europe", - says the founder and fund manager at Clairinvest, Ion-Marc Malachi. "The delaying of the Fed to raise rates only creates volatility, - he said. - If the US economy cannot withstand a slight increase in rates to 0.5%, it has big problems."
The rates of turbine manufacturers Gamesa Corp. and Vestas Wind Systems A/S dropped from the opening of the market by at least 4.1% after analysts at Credit Suisse Group have worsened recommendations for them.
The market value of Sunrise Communications Group AG fell 6.4% after the deterioration of the company forecast revenue for 2015.
Shares of Swatch Group AG and Cie. Financiere Richemont SA fell at least 1.3% on the news of the reduction of exports of watches from Switzerland to China in July.
At the same time the quotes of precious metals producers increased, including Fresnillo (LONDON: FRES) Plc (+ 2.6%) and Randgold Resources Ltd. (2%) due to rising prices for gold.