European shares close lower in lead-up to Fed, earnings

By Pranav Kashyap and Shashwat Chauhan

(Reuters) -European shares ended a touch lower on Monday as investors remained risk averse at the start of an earnings-packed week, while global risk events such as the upcoming Federal Reserve policy meeting added to market caution.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index closed 0.2% lower, having posted marginal gains last week.

Autos were the biggest decliner among major sectors, down 1.3%, with Milan-listed shares of Stellantis down 3.3% after Deutsche Bank downgraded the carmaker's rating to "hold" from "buy".

Meanwhile, investors braced for a bustling week, with attention shifting to the U.S. as four of the 'Magnificent Seven' mega-cap companies report, poised to significantly influence market sentiment.

The U.S. Federal Reserve's policy meeting ends on Wednesday, when traders expect the central bank to lay the groundwork for a September rate cut.

"While no change is expected at the Fed meeting this week, the odds are now strongly in favour of a cut in September, with more recent economic data adding to investors' conviction that one or even two more could follow before the end of the year," said Richard Hunter, head of markets at interactive investor.

A crucial reading of U.S. job data on Friday will also be on investors' radar.

The Bank of England (BoE), meanwhile, will also announce its rate verdict later in the week, with traders almost evenly split between a 25-basis-point cut or a hold on rates, as per LSEG data.

Prominent earnings across Europe this week include automaker Volkswagen, energy major BP, mining heavyweight Rio Tinto and German airline Lufthansa.

Among individual stocks, Heineken lost 10.1% on Monday after the Dutch brewer missed estimates for half-year operating profit, even as it raised its full-year profit outlook. Rival Carlsberg also fell 4.3%.

Reckitt Benckiser slumped 8.8% after U.S. healthcare firm Abbott Laboratories was ordered to pay $495 million in damages related to its formula for premature infants.

Entain shed 8.1% after U.S. sports betting platform BetMGM, a joint venture between the company and MGM Resorts, said that its losses for the year would be bigger than previously expected.

On the bright side, Philips soared 14.6% after the Dutch medical devices maker reported second-quarter results that exceeded analysts' expectations, thanks to cost savings, partly from job cuts, and flagged a big insurance payout linked to liability claims.

Shipping giants Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd jumped 5.6% and 8.6%, respectively, amid escalating Middle East tensions, which disrupt routes and boost freight rates.

(Reporting by Pranav Kashyap and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips, Mrigank Dhaniwala and Tomasz Janowski)