European markets close lower as oil and gas dips; ASML shares drop 15% after early earnings release

European stocks closed lower Tuesday, as investors monitored earnings and a sharp fall in oil prices and tech stocks.

The regional Stoxx 600 index closed 0.7% lower, with most major bourses ending in the red. Germany’s DAX bucked the trend, closing up 0.06%, having traded at a record high earlier in the session.

European sectors were spread between losses and gains, with media stocks adding 1.46% as oil and gas stocks retreated 3.24% and tech stocks fell 6.36%.

— Karen Gilchrist

Shares in semiconductor equipment maker ASML fell over 12% Tuesday after the Dutch company’s results appeared to be released a day early.

The move pulled other chip stocks lower, with Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom all falling at least 4%.

ASML said it expects its net sales for 2025 to come in at the lower half of the range it had previously provided, according to Reuters. Net bookings for the September quarter came in at 2.6 billion euros ($2.83 billion), the news wire said — well below the 5.6 billion euro LSEG consensus estimate.

— Ryan Browne

Crude oil futures tumbled over 5% on Tuesday as concerns eased over an Israeli strike on Iran’s oil industry and hopes for China’s economic resurgence waned.

West Texas Intermediate November contracts were last seen trading at $70.47 per barrel, down around 4.5%. Brent December contracts were last trading at $74.04 per barrel, down around 4.4.%.

U.S. stocks fell from record highs in early deals Tuesday as investors digested the latest round of earnings releases.

The Dow Jones was down 0.6% in opening trade, while the S&P 500 added 0.06% and the Nasdaq rose 0.2%.

Yogi Dewan, CEO of Hassium Asset Management, says the big challenge facing investors is concentration risk, with equity markets dominated by big tech names.

Industrial production in the euro zone increased 1.8% between July and August in the euro area, statistics agency Eurostat said.

It follows a 0.5% slide across June to July. Production was 0.1% higher on an annual basis in August, according to Eurostat.

“Output was up across a number of subsectors, but the big move this month was among automakers, who reported a jump of 15.2% month-on-month following the previous month’s 6.9% decrease,” Moody’s Analytics economist Ross Cioffi said in emailed comments.

Cioffi nonetheless described the overall year-on-year production figure as “grim,” and said survey data painted an “unappealing picture heading into the fourth quarter, without any clear sign that orders are recovering in a meaningful way.”

“Interest rate cuts by the ECB and more stable rates of inflation are going to support demand for goods. But the revival in demand will be gradual, and also depend on healthier demand in key trade partners, like China,” he said.

Bert Colijn, chief economist for the Netherlands at ING, observed the rare strong performance of Germany, but said industrial expectations of the euro area for the rest of the year were “lacklustre.”

“The list of concerns for eurozone industry is long at the moment, and ranges from increased competition from China to volatile energy costs, labor shortages and supply chain uncertainties,” he said in a note.

— Jenni Reid

U.S. crude oil futures sold off 4% on Tuesday, as a looming surplus next year overshadows the risk of a supply disruption in the Middle East.

U.S. crude oil was down $3.01, or 4.08%, to $70.82 per barrel at 7:42 a.m. ET. Global benchmark Brent pulled back $2.94, or 3.8%, to $74.52 per barrel.

Oil prices spiked earlier this month after Iran hit Israel with a ballistic missile attack, raising fears that Israel would respond by targeting the Islamic Republic’s oil facilities.

The International Energy Agency said Tuesday that its members are prepared to take action if there is a supply disruption in the Middle East.

“For now, supply keeps flowing, and in the absence of a major disruption, the market is faced with a sizeable surplus in the new year,” the IEA said in its monthly report.

— Spencer Kimball

Economic sentiment in Germany is slightly more positive in October, according to a monthly study produced by research institute ZEW.

Gains for the month reversed losses in September in ZEW’s measure of overall sentiment, even as people’s assessment of the current situation in Germany worsened.

“Starting from a very poor assessment of the current situation, the economic sentiment for Germany has risen in the latest survey. Contributing factors include the expectation of stable inflation rates and the associated prospect of further interest rate cuts by the [European Central Bank],” ZEW President Achim Wambach said.

“Positive signals are also coming from Germany’s export markets. Economic expectations for the eurozone, the USA, and China have also significantly improved. The increased optimism for China is likely linked to the Chinese government’s economic stimulus measures,” Wambach said.

“These developments have probably also contributed to the rise in economic expectations for Germany,” he added.

Germany has experienced good news on inflation, with figures out Tuesday showing wholesale prices fell 1.6% year-on-year in September, after the headline consumer price index cooled to 1.6%.

However, its growth forecast remains weak amid a myriad of challenges. The country’s economic ministry last week forecast a 0.2% real terms fall in output this year, before momentum picks up in 2025.

— Jenni Reid

Shares of British homebuilder Bellway were 6.7% higher at 10:45 a.m. U.K. time, after the company said it would deliver a “material increase in volume output” in the 2025 financial year due to improved trading conditions and a strong increase in its year-end order book.

Bellway meanwhile reported a 30.1% decline in revenue for the year ending July 31, and a 57.5% slide in underlying pre-tax profit to £226.1 million ($295.5 million).

“While a lower order book at the beginning of the financial year drove the reduction in the number of housing completions, customer demand through the second half benefitted from a moderation in mortgage interest rates which has eased affordability pressures and supported an increase in reservations,” CEO Jason Honeyman said in a statement.

Oli Creasey, property research analyst at Quilter Cheviot, said it had been a tough financial year for Bellway and other housebuilders.

“Backward-looking weakness has come as no surprise, and investors are more interested in the outlook for the next 12 months. The direction of travel is positive, but the pace of recovery that Bellway’s outlook statement suggests is a little troubling,” Creasey said, noting that a forecast for 11% volumes growth next year came from a low base and was down 22 percentage points on the 2022 to 2023 financial year.

British property firms are eagerly awaiting the government’s budget at the end of the month following pledges to ramp up housing supply.

— Jenni Reid

Oil and gas stocks were 3% lower at 9:45 a.m. in London, after the International Energy Agency said the oil market was facing a “sizeable surplus” next year.

In its monthly report, published Tuesday, the IEA said heightened oil supply security concerns due to Middle East tensions were playing out against a global market that “looks adequately supplied.”

“OPEC+ spare production capacity stands at historic highs, barring the exceptional period of the Covid-19 pandemic… global oil stocks provide a further buffer,” it said.

“For now, supply keeps flowing, and in the absence of a major disruption, the market is faced with a sizeable surplus in the new year.”

The agency forecasts world oil demand will expand by just under 900,000 barrels a day in 2024 and by 1 million barrels a day in 2025, down from the 2 million barrels a day recorded across 2022 to 2023.

Oil prices fell Tuesday as investors also considered a report in the Washington Post that eased fears that Israel might attack Iranian oil facilities.

The U.K. labor market snapshot released by the Office of National Statistics on Tuesday is broadly supportive of a Bank of England rate cut in November, according to analysts.

Wage growth met forecasts and slowed to the lowest level in more than two years, while the jobs market was relatively stable, with unemployment dipping to 4% from 4.1%.

“The gradual cooling of the U.K. labour market continues, with wage growth easing further and vacancies continuing to trend down. There’s little in the figures to change expectations of a steady pace of interest rate cuts from the Bank of England over coming months,” Jack Kennedy, senior economist at Indeed, said in a note.

The BOE cut rates by 25 basis points in August and held them steady in September. Markets are pricing in an 83% probability of a November rate cut as of Tuesday morning.

Ashley Webb, U.K. economist at Capital Economics, said the ONS figures added “further support” to expectations of a rate cut to 4.75% from 5% next month. Thomas Pugh, economist RSM UK, said the door would be “wide open” for a November cut as long as inflation figures — due out Wednesday — fall as expected.

“We expect private sector pay growth to slow gradually over the rest of this year, that would give the [Monetary Policy Committee] ample cover to cut rates again towards the end of the year, probably in November,” Pugh said.

“What happens after December is likely to be influenced by the budget, a more expansionary budget using debt funding to boost investment may mean the MPC opts to cut rates quarterly rather than sequentially.”

The U.K.’s Labour government is due to deliver its first budget at the end of October.

— Jenni Reid

Shares of Swedish telecom equipment manufacturer Ericsson were 9% higher at 8:24 a.m. London time after the company’s third-quarter results beat sales and earnings forecasts in an LSEG-compiled poll.

“This has been a challenging market for various reasons for quite some time, but we have also taken a lot of actions to start to adjust the way we operate, our internal priorities, how we work with customers, et cetera. And all of that is coming through, so we’re starting to see a gradual recovery,” Ericsson CEO Börje Ekholm told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Tuesday.

The company’s annual sales fell 1% year on year on an organic basis. Ekholm said the decline is “much lower than it’s been before,” a sign that the market is “stabilizing.”

“North America was the first to roll out 5G and of course, they were also the first to therefore slow down the pace, but they are now coming back. So I think it feels a bit of optimism that we can see coming here,” he said.

Ericsson reported 55% sales growth in North America for the quarter, which Ekholm said had been boosted by the large AT&T contract it secured late last year.

— Jenni Reid

European stocks opened broadly higher Tuesday, with the Stoxx 600 index up by 0.34% at 8:15 a.m. in London.

However, major bourses were mixed, with Germany’s DAX up 0.52% as France’s CAC 40 and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 fell by 0.13% and 0.08%, respectively.

— Jenni Reid

Average U.K. wages excluding bonuses rose 4.9% annually in the June to August period, in line with the forecast in a Reuters poll and down from 5.1% in May to July.

The Office for National Statistics said growth in earnings including bonuses was 3.8%, but noted annual rates were affected by one-off health and civil service payments made over the summer.

According to the ONS’ flash estimate, median monthly pay in September was £2,397 ($3,126), up 5.3% year on year but a dip from £2,413 the previous month.

The number of payrolled employees was “largely unchanged” in September on the previous month, it said.

— Jenni Reid

Sweden’s Ericsson reported a 4% year-on-year decline in net sales for the third quarter, as 55% growth in North America — where it provides 5G network equipment — failed to pull up declines in other markets.

The telecom manufacturer posted adjusted core earnings of 7.3 billion Swedish kronor ($699 million), a swing from the 28 billion krona loss in the same period the year before. Earnings were also ahead of the 5.75 billion kronor forecast in an LSEG poll of analysts, according to Reuters.

Sales were 9% lower across the first nine months of the year for the company, which has announced a new strategy and job cuts this year as 5G spending wanes.

— Jenni Reid

The popularity of anime — or animation produced in Japan — has boomed in recent years, and several global entertainment companies are leading in, according to Jefferies.

“Many companies are now positioning anime-related businesses as core to their growth strategies,” the investment bank’s analysts said in an Oct. 9 equity research note.

Looking ahead, they expect the market to double from $31.2 billion in 2023 to $60.1 billion by 2030, based on estimates from Grand View Research.

CNBC Pro subscribers can click here to read more on three stocks Jefferies expects to benefit.

— Amala Balakrishner

Nvidia shares ended Monday’s session at an all-time closing high, bringing the chipmaker’s market cap above $3.4 trillion.

The stock jumped 2.4% to finish the session at $138.07, beating its prior closing high of $135.58 seen June 18. Shares are now up more than 178% in 2024 alone as the artificial intelligence boom continues taking Wall Street by storm.

Nvidia is the second-most valuable publicly traded U.S. company. It’s currently behind Apple, which has a market cap of about $3.55 trillion.

— Alex Harring, Kif Leswing

European markets are expected to open in mixed territory Monday.

The U.K.’s FTSE 100 index is expected to open 17 points higher at 8,373, Germany’s DAX down 12 points at 19,644, France’s CAC up 1 point at 7,611 and Italy’s FTSE MIB up 55 points at 35,087, according to data from IG.

Earnings are set to come from Forvia and SAP. German producer price index data is due.

— Holly Ellyatt