European equities extended losses on Tuesday, with the Stoxx Europe 600 Index declining 0.1% to 651.16, marking its sixth consecutive day of declines and a two-week low. The broad index has retraced recent gains as bond yields climbed to multi-year peaks, pressuring risk assets.
Regional benchmarks showed mixed performance, with France’s CAC 40 down 0.1% while Germany’s DAX, the UK’s FTSE 100, Spain’s IBEX 35 and Italy’s FTSE MIB finished little changed. U.S. Treasury yields fell sharply, with the 10-year rate dropping to 4.647% and the 30-year yield falling nearly 14 basis points to 5.198%. Germany’s 10-year Bund yield reached its highest level since 2011, and France’s 10-year yield hit a 16-year peak, reflecting heightened concerns over inflation persistence and monetary policy paths.
ECB Chief Economist Philip Lane warned that Eurozone inflation remains "well above" the central bank’s 2% target, calling current price growth of around 3% unacceptable for policymakers amid risks of secondary energy shocks. Swaps markets are pricing in a near-certain 25-basis-point rate hike by the ECB at its September meeting.
In corporate news, Straumann shares fell as much as 9% following a mixed earnings update. Trainline plunged 15.5% after Britain’s competition regulator launched a formal investigation into allegations that the ticketing platform concealed mandatory fees from consumers. Anthropic’s annual revenue run-rate surged to $65 billion at the end of July, underscoring strong demand for artificial intelligence services.
Commodities showed divergent trends, with Brent crude futures holding near three-week highs around $91.50 per barrel. Shipping data from the Strait of Hormuz indicated a sharp drop in vessel transits on Tuesday, with only six commodity vessels passing through compared to nine the previous day and a 10-day average of 11.
In policy developments, the U.S. Treasury announced it will double liquidity-support buyback operations, raising the cap for long-dated nominal debt from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation starting September 9.
