European indexes close broadly lower on Tuesday, DAX recovers but still lower

• European equities declined on Tuesday amidst a thin economic calendar.
• UK BRC Retail Sales fell further, fueling risk-off investor sentiment.
• European Unemployment Rate ticks down to 6.4%.

European equity indexes declined on Tuesday, paring back some losses at the midpoint of the day’s trading sessions but still ending the day broadly lower as market sentiment coils with investors awaiting meaningful data.

The Eurozone’s Unemployment Rate ticked slightly lower from 6.5% to 6.4% in November, but the overall employment picture in Europe sees businesses struggling to fill positions and a general mismatch in labor skills plaguing productivity across the continent. 

Tuesday also saw the UK’s BRC Like-For-Like Retail Sales for the year ended December, which declined from 2.6% to 1.9% compared to the previous month’s YoY result as UK consumers grapple with still-high inflation eating away at their spending power.

ECB's Villeroy: ECB to cut rates in 2024

Banque de France (BoF) Governor and member of the European Central Bank’s (ECB) Governing Council François Villeroy de Galhau delivered hawkish remarks after the market close to investors, noting that the ECB is well on its way to begin cutting rates in 2024. European shareholders will have to wait until Wednesday’s market open to bid on stocks following Villeroy’s statements.

The German DAX fell 0.17%, sliding 28 points to close at €16,688.36, while France’s CAC 40 Index shed a third of a percent to close at €7,426.62, down 23.62 points. The UK’s FTSE 100 index shed a little over one-tenth of one percent, falling 10.23 points to £7,683.96.

The pan-European STOXX600 index fell 0.92 points to close at €477.26, down a fifth of a percent on Tuesday.

DAX Technical Outlook

The DAX fumbled on Tuesday, paring back Monday’s gains to fall into the €16,6090 neighborhood before moderating in the last half of the trading day.

The German equity index is still down from 2024’s opening bids, and intraday action is getting snarled on the 200-hour Simple Moving Average (SMA).

The Dax snapped a three-day win streak on Tuesday, keeping the index trapped inside a congestion pattern just below December’s recent highs just shy of the €17,000 major handle.

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