European stock markets declined on Thursday, as investors digested the latest statement from the U.S. Federal Reserve, which some analysts found less dovish than expected.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index dropped 0.1% to 320.36, trimming its monthly gain to 3.2%.
Shares of Alcatel-Lucent SA jumped 15% after the telecom-equipment maker posted a narrower loss in the third quarter, helped by a rise in revenue.
Novo Nordisk AS slid 4.1% after the insulin maker reported third-quarter earnings slightly below expectations, and made downgrades to its guidance for sales and operating profit.
Shares of Technip SA (TNHPF.NaE) slumped 7% after the oil-services group amended its full-year revenue targets to reflect lower expectations for revenue from subsea activities, while revenue from onshore and offshore businesses is forecast to rise at a faster pace.
More broadly, investors looked to the U.S., where the Federal Reserve concluded a two-day meeting on Wednesday by making no changes to its interest rates or quantitative-easing program. The statement out after the meeting showed few changes from the September statement, but market participants had expected the Fed to be more bearish on the economy, and thus more dovish on monetary policy, given recent weak data.
'A run of weak economic data and the fallout from the U.S. shutdown had markets cemented to the view that tapering wouldn't begin until March next year at the earliest,' said Jonathan Sudaria, dealer at London Capital Group, in a note.
'The lack of symmetry between how the Fed sees the economy and how markets have interpreted the data has traders concerned that they've pushed out the timeline for tapering too far. With the foundations of the recent rally built on the idea that tapering was continually being kicked further and further down the road, bulls could be in for a rude awakening,' he added.
U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street. Asia markets closed mostly lower.
In Europe, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index was on track to break a five-day winning streak, down 0.4% at 6,751.60.
France's CAC 40 index dropped 0.2% to 4,263.23, while Germany's DAX 30 index fell 0.2% to 8,994.03.
Link: https://www.fidelity.co.uk/investor/news-views/today-in-the-markets/europe-detail.page?resId=201310310509MRKTWTCHNEWS_SVC_72A3A840-4207-11E3-8D5D-00212803FAD6&requestId=1&showChain=true&FullArticle=true
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