European Markets Uninspired By Wall Street Rally

(RTTNews) - European stocks were mixed Thursday, with German shares trimming recent losses despite trailing strong gains on Wall Street.

Investors were in a better mood after the European Central Bank's second offering of its targeted longer term refinancing operation, or TLTRO, saw the demand for loans by banks was better than what was seen in the previous round in September.

The Frankfurt-based apex bank allotted 129.84 billion euros of the 317 billion euros offering, at 0.15 percent. The number of bidders rose to 306 from 255 in September. Economists had expected the take-up to be between 140 billion euros and 150 billion euros. The figures could once again open discussions about stimulus measures.

On a day of very little economic news, the Swiss National Bank maintained its currency ceiling and interest rate unchanged. The bank downgraded its inflation forecast as deflation risks increased again in the economy.

Germany's final harmonised index of consumer prices increased in November, data from the Federal Statistical Office revealed. The annual HICP inflation came in at 0.5 percent in November.

The EU measure of inflation for France slowed as expected in November, figures from the statistical office Insee showed. The harmonised index of consumer prices grew 0.4 percent year-on-year, in line with the consensus estimate. This was slower than the 0.5 percent rise in October.

The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks inched up 0.26 percent.

The German DAX gained 0.64 percent and the French CAC 40 declined 0.05 percent. The FTSE 100 index of the U.K. eased 0.59 percent.

In Paris, Airbus dropped more than 4 percent. The company Wednesday forecast flat profit for 2016 and also informed of a delay in the delivery of its newest passenger jet, the A350 XWB wide-body aircraft, to Qatar Airways Ltd.

Building materials maker Saint Gobain fell 1.7 percent. Oil services provider Technip gained 3 percent.

In London, Randgold Resources, Fresnillo and Glencore were all down.

Bunzl declined 1.9 percent. The distribution and outsourcing group expects full-year currency-neutral group revenue growth to be around 6 percent.

Inditex, which reported 9-month results, gained 4.2 percent in Madrid.

Asian stocks fell amid tumbling oil prices. Chinese shares fell on profit taking after recent gains, a stronger yen weighed on the Japanese market and Seoul shares tumbled in the aftermath of the central bank's decision to hold interest rates at a record low of 2 percent.

In the U.S., the Dow was up sharply following the release of a Commerce Department report showing a bigger than expected increase in U.S. retail sales in the month of November.