Europe close: Late selling hits stocks across the Continent
A wave of selling in the final stretch of the session weighed on stocks across the Continent on the last day of the month.
By the close of trading, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was down by 0.71% or 2.73 points at 379.63, alongside a 0.44% or 54.88 point fall to 12,435.85 for the German Dax, while the Cac-40 was 0.44% lower at 5,320.49.
Meanwhile, out on the euro area periphery, the Ibex 35 was retreating by 0.45% or 46.30 points to 9,853.90, but the FTSE Mibtel was adding 0.02% or 6.20 points to 22,730.66.
Over in FX markets, euro/dollar was slipping 0.24% to 1.2203 while the yield on the benchmark 10 year Bund was down by two basis point at 0.66%.
Acting as a backdrop, in testimony before US lawmakers on Tuesday evening, US central bank chief Jerome Powell appeared to leave the door open to a slight acceleration in the pace of rate cuts if economic conditions warranted such a move, according to many economists.
On the economic front, earlier Eurostat reported that the rate of inflation within the single currency bloc had slowed from a 1.2% pace year-on-year for January to 1.1% in February.
At the 'core' level, CPI was flat at up 1.0% year-on-year.
That followed a weaker than expected reading on German CPI the day before which prompted Michael Hewson at CMC Markets UK to say: "German inflation on the other hand remains stubbornly low, and is declining, despite an unemployment rate at a record low of 5.4%, and a recent wage settlement of over 4% for IG Metall workers."
In parallel, it was reported that the number of jobless in Germany declined by 22,000 in February, close on the heels of a 24,000 person fall in the month before (consensus: 15,000).
Going the other way, GfK's measure of consumer confidence in the Eurozone's largest economy fell back from a reading of 11.0 for February to a print of 10.0 (consensus: 10.8).
Hogging the headlines in the corporate space, German chemicals giant Bayer posted adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of €1.78bn, a shade less than the consensus forecast.
Elsewhere, according to Il Sole 24 Ore Italy's Leonardo was in talks with Qatar to sell the Kingdom 22 Nh90 military helicopters.