European stocks head lower on Evergrande woes, mixed earnings

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The pan-European STOXX 600 index edged down 0.4% by 0710 GMT, retreating from its highest level in six weeks. Asian stocks were knocked lower by news about the collapse of a $2.6 billion asset sale at heavily indebted developer China Evergrande Group.

The losses were led by miners, automakers and industrial stocks, in tandem with growing nervousness around a slate of corporate earnings set for Thursday and the weeks to follow.

Swiss engineering and tech group ABB fell 3.4% on lowering its full-year sales forecast after warning of shortages of components.

AB Volvo was down 2.1% after its profit beat expectations but warned that persisting chip shortages hampered the truck maker’s production.

Barclays (LON:BARC) slipped 0.6% even as the British bank posted a bumper third-quarter performance.

Unilever (NYSE:UL) rose 1.2% as the consumer goods giant beat third-quarter sales growth forecasts as it hiked prices to try to offset surging energy and other costs.