Europe close: Stocks come off lows as copper rebounds, euro slips back

European stocks managed to close off their worst levels of the session as strength in the euro abated, despite increased caution on the part of investors amid what some analysts described as "diminished expectations for US tax reforms".

By the closing bell, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was off by 0.49% or 1.90 points to 381.96, alongside a 0.44% or 57.11 point fall to 12,976.37 on the German Dax and a retreat of 0.62% or 138.20 points in the FTSE Mibtel to 22,158.88.

Weakness in commodity price also contributed to weakness in share prices, although come the closing bell copper futures had recovered from an earlier swoon, helping the Stoxx 600's sector gauge for Basic Resources to trim its losses to 1.09% for a close at 431.12.

Front month Brent crude oil futures also came of their lows, but nevertheless ended the day 0.48% lower at $61.92 a barrel after Bloomberg reported that Moscow thought the 30 November OPEC meeting was too soon to commit to continued output cuts.

For their part, three-month LME copper closed at $6,773 per metric tonne versus $6,867 at Tuesday's close.

In parallel, euro-dollar ended the session down by 0.01% at 1.1796 - having hit an intraday high of 1.1860 earlier - on the back of stronger than expected prints for US consumer prices and retail sales in October.

"US markets also struggled to make gains closing lower, as investors took their cues from disappointing Chinese data which raised concerns of a disappointing end to the year for the world’s second biggest economy, as well as diminishing expectations of progress on US tax reform," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.

"Equities are extending yesterday's losses in a general risk-off move. This follows more China-inspired selling of metals overnight to hurt the commodity space and an IEA report on oil adding fuel to the global oversupply story. Compounding this are nerves about tomorrow's US tax vote and dovish comments from the Fed's Evans which have sent USD lower, resulting in reciprocal yet unwelcome GBP and EUR strength this side of the pond," chipped in Mike van Dulken at Accendo Markets.

On the economic data front, according to revised data from INSEE French consumer prices advanced by 0.2% month-on-month and 1.2% on the year in October, confirming a preliminary estimate.

In other news, the Eurozone's seasonally adjusted trade surplus increased from €21.0bn in August to €25.0bn for September, reaching its highest level on record, according to Eurostat.

Meanwhile, in the corporate space, Airbus said it had clinched a 450 plane order with Indigo Partners valued at $49.5bn - the largest in the manufacturer's history - for 273 A320 neo jets and 157 of the bigger A321neo model.

Elsewhere, German speciality chemicals-maker Lanxess posted adjusted net profits of €106m for the three months to September up from €77m a year earlier on 25% higher sales to €2.4bn.