Europe closes: Stocks little changed amid geopolitical tensions
Stocks in Europe finished mostly lower on Thursday although losses were marginal.
Weighing on investor sentiment was data showing the first increase in weekly jobless claims in the States since March and geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing.
In response to the US administration's decision to shut the Chinese consulate in Houston, a spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry, Wang Wenbin, said: "As to which direction this relationship is heading, it's an issue for the U.S. to carefully think about."
Speculation was that China might retaliate by closing down the American consulate in Wuhan, the epicentre of the global novel coronavirus pandemic, among other possible measures.
"The economy does not seem to be on sound footing anymore and the with high uncertainty with the direction of the coronavirus, businesses will likely struggle to justify hirings," said Edward Moya at Oanda.
By the end of trading, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was higher by 0.06% at 373.65, but the Dax was off 0.01% to 13,103.39 and the FTSE Mibtel was down 0.7% to 20,454.46.
There was some positive news out of the euro area itself however.
Consultancy GfK's consumer sentiment index for Germany improved to -0.3 for August from -9.4 in July, bounding past a forecast of -5.0.
Germans were reportedly anticipating a prompt economic recovery, but GfK cautioned that any second wave of infections might "shatter" any such hope.
The European Commission's gauge for confidence at the Eurozone level however dipped 0.3 points to -15.0 (consensus: -12.0).
In France meanwhile, the national statistics agency, INSEE, reported a rise in its business climate index from 78 for June to 85 in July.