European stocks opened lower on Thursday after the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decided to leave its $85bn-a-month asset-purchasing program unchanged for now.
The Euro Stoxx 50 declined 0.29% lower at 3,031.75 at the time of writing, while the German DAX edged 0.29% lower at 8,983.97 points.
At the same time, the French CAC 40 index lost 0.42%, standing at 4,255.96 and the UK FTSE 100 dropped 0.33% at 6,755.32 points.
Meanwhile, Germany’s Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) posted its economic data showing that Germany’s retail sales advanced 0.2% in September, following the rise of 0.4% in the previous month.
The Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat) is expected to report this month’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) later in the day. Eurostat will report the unemployment rate for the Eurozone with forecasts of an unchanged reading in September, compared to the reading in August.
The Italian Statistical Office (Istat) is expected to release the unemployment rate for September, with a forecast of a rise from the previous month’s reading of 12.2% to 12.3%.
Following analysts’ predictions, the US Federal Reserve has decided to keep its $85 billion monthly bond-buying program.
“The Committee decided to await more evidence that progress will be sustained before adjusting the pace of its purchases,” Fed policymakers said.
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decided to keep the federal fund rate unchanged at 0% to 0.25%. The key rate will remain unchanged until the unemployment rate drops to 6.5% and inflation passes the 2.5% mark, the Fed policymakers confirmed.
German’s pharmaceutical company, Bayer’s net income surged 42.1% to €733 million from July to September from the previous record of €516 seen in the same quarter last year.
Germany’s airliner Lufthansa posted its worst quarter in the third quarter as it showed the company’s net profit dropped from €697 million to €247 million on a year-on-year basis. While the French banking company BNP Paribas’s net income came in at €9.287 billion in the third quarter, declining by 4.2% compared to the same period last year.
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