European Shares
Stocks opened mixed in Europe on Wednesday, following a volatile trading session in Asia, while the uncertain market sentiment also spread to US futures. The bullish enthusiasm and appetite for risk is being tempered after investors digested the mixed announcement from Microsoft as the company posted robust Q4 earnings but warned investors about slowing sales output from its cloud computing businesses. This has sparked rising doubt from investors about the true state of the rest of corporate profit releases – especially for tech shares – as many were optimistically pricing solid reports everywhere. In addition, traders also faced poor macro developments this morning after Australia published a 32-year record inflation print, highlighting lingering monetary problems, while the UK also disappointed with poor PPI data.