LONDON — European markets retreated on Thursday as caution returned to global stocks, with investors assessing plenty of likely headwinds in 2023.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was down 0.5% in early trade, with food and beverage stocks shedding 1% to guide losses as just about all sectors and major bourses slid into the red.
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The European blue chip index began Thursday’s session down greater than 12% for the yr.
European markets look set to proceed the weak sentiment in Asia-Pacific overnight, where markets followed Wall Street’s losses as investors looked with trepidation to the yr ahead. U.S. stock futures ticked barely higher in early premarket trade on Thursday.
Global stock markets are rounding off a tumultuous and difficult yr, as governments and central banks grappled with sky-high inflation arising from the fallout from Russia’s war in Ukraine, and protracted Covid-19 restrictions in China.
The boost offered on Tuesday by China’s leisure of the last of the zero-Covid measures, which it has held in place for nearly three years, proved fleeting as caution returned throughout the week.
Investors remain wary of the prospect of persistently high inflation, monetary policy tightening from central banks and a potentially prolonged period of sluggish economic growth.
One economist told CNBC on Tuesday that almost all major economies can be “lucky” to realize 1% GDP growth every year for much of the subsequent decade.
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