Europe midday: Shares pare losses, but ASML, Renault weigh

(Sharecast News) - European shares pared losses at midday although downbeat earnings from ASML and Renault still weighed on sentiment, while investors mulled a rise in US and UK inflation. The pan-regional Stoxx 600 index was down 0.02% in early deals to 544.72. Germany's DAX rallied to be up 0.21% and France's CAC 40 recovered to be up 0.07%.

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. The news also hit European chipmakers BE Semiconductor and ASMI.

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

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com