European stocks decline on financials, commodities; DAX sheds 0.13%

Investing.com – European stocks were down on Wednesday, as shares in the financial and commodity sectors led markets lower, while U.S. futures indexes pointed to a lower open on Wall Street.

During European morning trade, the EURO STOXX 50 fell 0.09%; France’s CAC 40 shed 0.11%; while Germany's DAX declined 0.13%.

Shares in the financial sector were broadly lower as fears lingered over the euro zone’s sovereign debt crisis. On Tuesday, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said that European institutions must act more quickly to stem contagion from the sovereign-debt crisis.

Shares in Germany’s largest lender Deutsche Bank tumbled 1.01%, Europe’s second-biggest bank Credit Agricole saw shares plunge 1.16%, while shares in Spain’s largest lender Banco Santander fell 1.12%.

Meanwhile, shares in the world’s largest steel producer ArcelorMittal fell 0.78% after it said it would it would take a charge of approximately USD 800 million in the first quarter of 2011 as it planned to list its stainless steel division on the CAC 40 index.

In London, the commodity-heavy FTSE 100 fell 0.15% as metal and crude oil prices retreated amid concerns that China planned to hike its benchmark interest rate as soon as this weekend in an effort to curb inflation.
 
Shares in the world’s third-largest mining group Rio Tinto tumbled 0.98%, copper producer Xstrata saw shares fall 0.73%, while British Petroleum saw shares slump 0.56%.

Meanwhile, shares in British shopping mall operator Capital Shopping Centers plunged 3.92% after U.S. shareholder Simon Property Group, which owns a 5% stake in the shopping mall owner, renewed efforts to block its planned acquisition of the Trafford shopping center for approximately GBP 1.6 billion.  

The outlook for U.S. equity markets, meanwhile, was downbeat ahead of earnings reports from the third-largest U.S. retailer Costco Wholesale Club and from luxury department store operator Neiman Marcus.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures pointed to a loss of 0.34%, S&P 500 futures indicated a drop of 0.30% and Nasdaq 100 futures pointed to a decrease of 0.25%.

On Tuesday, the Irish austerity budget passed the first in a series of votes to tackle what Finance Minister Brian Lenihan called the “worst crisis in our history.”