Europe open: Shares down on US, UK inflation data; Renault tanks

(Sharecast News) - European shares opened lower after a rise in US inflation fuelled concerns about the impact of tariffs on the world's biggest economy, while UK June consumer prices also came in hot. The pan-regional Stoxx 600 index was down 0.23% in early deals to 543.72. Germany's DAX was down 0.21% and France's CAC 40 declined 0.28%.

US inflation rose to 2.7% from 2.4% in June as the first signs of the cost of President Donald Trump's trade war with the rest of the world started to feed through.

"Fears of tariff-fueled inflation and the continued strength in labour market data are pushing expectations of Fed rate cuts further out. The Fed is not expected to cut rates at its meeting later this month-and may skip the September meeting as well. Fed funds futures currently assign only a 54% probability to a rate cut in September," said Swissquote Bank analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya.

In the UK, inflation came in higher than expected, hitting 3.6% in June, according to data released by the Office for National Statistics. Economists had been expecting a rise of 3.4%.

On the equities front, ASML fell sharply after missing expectations for revenue guidance in the current quarter and warned of the possibility of no growth ahead.

Renault shares slumped 13% after the automaker cut margins guidance.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com