European shares flat, investors sift through earnings deluge

(Reuters) – European stocks opened largely flat as investors parsed through a deluge of earnings reports from major lenders like Deutsche Bank and Barclays, while waiting to hear from the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The pan-European STOXX 600 <.stoxx> slipped 0.1% by 0716 GMT, oil & gas <.sxep> and chemical <.sx4p> leading the declines, while a 1.2% jump in retailers <.sxrp> helped counter the losses.

German lender Deutsche Bank AG rose 1.3%, while Britain’s Barclays Plc slipped 1.6% as they set aside more funds to protect for potential loan losses as the coronavirus pandemic takes its toll, but both showed improvement at the investment bank.

UK retailer Next jumped 8.9% and French luxury group Kering rose 5.3% after reporting a smaller-than-expected decline in quarterly sales.

Chemicals giant BASF SE was down 4.2% after saying it still could not provide guidance for full-year sales and earnings due to uncertainty over the economic fallout from the pandemic.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr)