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European stocks closed slightly lower on Thursday, Stoke 600 The index fell 0.24%.

Major stock markets closed lower, with Germany’s DAX index falling 0.76%, France’s CAC 40 index and Britain’s FTSE 100 index falling 0.63% and 0.08% respectively.

The European Central Bank is likely to cut interest rates in June but should proceed in a “cautious” manner from then on, the governor of Latvia’s central bank said on Thursday.

“I think we will benefit from a cautious downward path… When we have our outlook meeting and new forecasts, it will be much easier to make decisions,” ECB policymaker Martins Harzaks said. told Reuters.

“Given that inflation is going to be sideways for most of the year, you shouldn’t expect some kind of action at every meeting,” Harzaks said.

After weeks of strong signals from ECB members, markets are almost certain to cut interest rates in June, but the next move is less clear.

The euro zone economy emerged from a shallow recession in the first quarter of this year, growing by 0.3%, while overall inflation was 2.4% in April.

Kazakh also told Reuters that the ECB’s first few interest rate cuts would keep monetary policy within a restrictive range, but that “the economy is not extremely weak” and so there should not be a rush to the downside.

—Jenny Reed

Shares in Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk fell on Thursday after a fire broke out in a building under construction at its manufacturing center in Kalundborg, Denmark.

The stock was down 0.45% as of 3:40 pm London time.

Novo Nordisk confirms the incident occurred on Google Translate postal “No one was injured in the fire,” the company said, adding that the fire had been extinguished.

Reuters quoted a company spokesman on Thursday as saying the pharmaceutical giant was “optimistic” that the fire would not delay its expansion plans.

—Vicki MacIver

BT shares BT Shares soared 10.5% after announcing cost-cutting plans and were expected to post their biggest one-day gain since November 2021.

In its full year results Figures released on Thursday showed revenue held steady at 20.8 billion pounds ($26.3 billion) in the year to March, up slightly from 20.7 billion pounds a year earlier. However, profits after tax fell 55% to £855m.

Chief executive Allison Kirkby said the company was now focused on doubling free cash flow over the next five years and could sell its global operations to focus on the UK

“As we enter the next phase of BT Group’s transformation, we will place an increased emphasis on delivering better services to our customers and countries, accelerate the modernization of our operations and explore options to optimize our global business. This will create a better Simple BT Group, fully focused on connecting Britain and well-positioned to deliver significant growth for all our stakeholders,” she said.

— Karen Gilchrist

German technology giant Siemens on Thursday reported a drop in profits at its industrial business in the fiscal second quarter and said its automation unit was slowing.

The company’s industrial profit was 2.51 billion euros ($2.73 billion) in the three months to March, down 2% from the same period last year. The figure was also lower than the 2.68 billion euros forecast by company analysts reported by Reuters.

Siemens shares fell 2.6% as of 8:48 a.m. London time on Thursday.

Read the full story here.

——Sophie Kidlin

british low cost airline EasyJet Thursday release Although inflationary pressures on the sector are starting to ease, first-half pre-tax losses were slightly higher than expected at £350 million ($443 million).

The shortfall was higher than analysts’ expectations of 340 million pounds, but lower than the 411 million pounds overall pre-tax loss reported in the same period last year, Reuters reported, citing a London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) poll. Continue to move beyond the impact of Covid-19.

Chief executive Johan Lundgren told CNBC the airline is seeing “positive momentum” in the summer travel season, with consumers prioritizing travel, particularly to classic European destinations such as Spain, Portugal and Turkey.

The chief executive, who announced he will step down in 2025, added that easyJet expected to take delivery of all new aircraft from Airbus despite wider concerns about supply constraints.

“It doesn’t necessarily mean there will be less capacity than last year. It will certainly be lower than some airlines expected, but we won’t be affected,” he said.

— Karen Gilchrist

Citi recently named a low-profile company to acquire for “data and artificial intelligence opportunities.”

Citi noted that the company said it has tripled its total addressable market due to its artificial intelligence opportunities.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Weizhen Tan

Mark Hamrick, senior economist at Bankrate, said the “no nasty surprises” were welcome as the consumer price index showed a slight slowdown in inflation in April, unlike March’s disappointingly high reading.

Still, interest rates will remain elevated for an extended period of time, he noted.

“With headline growth at 3.4% and core growth at 3.6% (excluding food and energy), these numbers remain annoyingly high,” Hamrick said. “The current state of the fight against inflation requires interest rates to remain low in the short term.” Keep it high.”

— Michelle Fox

European markets are expected to open higher on Thursday.

British FTSE 100 The German stock index is expected to open 22 points higher at 8,442 German DAX Index France rose 26 points to 18,896 CAC 7 points higher than Italy at 8,244 FTSE MIB It rose 64 points to 35,091 points, according to IG data.

Revenue comes from Swiss Re, Zurich Insurance, Siemens, Deutsche Telekom, BT and easyJet, among others. No major data releases.

— Holly Elliot