This is C온라인카지노사이트's live blog covering European markets.

European markets closed lower on Wednesday, with traders monitoring regional corporate earnings releases and awaiting the U.S. Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy announcement.

The pan-European closed down 0.5% provisionally, with retail stocks down 2.2%, leading the losses.

Europe's pharmaceuticals industry is still reeling from U.S. President Donald Trump's Monday that tariffs for the sector would be announced within the next two weeks.

Top posts

• Novo Nordisk cuts 2025 guidance, posts first-quarter profit beat | view post
• BMW confirms 2025 guidance amid 'volatile' tariffs | view post
• Orsted shares fall after Hornsea 4 project withdrawal | view post
• Volvo stock pares gains after U.S. layoffs announcement | view post

Shares of Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk bucked the sectoral trend to gain 1.3%, after the company's first-quarter earnings . The firm cut its 2025 guidance, however, citing weakening demand for its blockbuster weight-loss drug Wegovy.

Investors also monitored earnings releases from , , , , , , , , , , and on Wednesday.

Across the Atlantic, the Fed's interest rate decision is due at 2 p.m. ET.  suggests just a 3.1% chance of the central bank cutting interest rates this meeting, according to CME's FedWatch tool. Traders will nevertheless be listening for Fed Chair Jerome Powell's comments after the announcement for insights into the path of rates and state of the economy. 

opened higher after government spokespeople said U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and top trade official Jamieson Greer  with their Chinese counterparts this week in Switzerland. The news was taken as a positive sign for developments on trade negotiations after turbulent market action following President Donald Trump's tariff announcement last month.

Meanwhile, after China's central bank and financial regulators announced sweeping plans to cut key interest rates in an effort to shore up growth in the face of trade worries.

— C온라인카지노사이트's Lee Ying Shan and Alex Harring contributed reporting to this summary

Novo Nordisk CEO says ‘compounders took a part of our business away’

Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen weighs in on the impact of compounded drugs on first-quarter Wegovy sales while forecasting a rebound later this year.

U.S. stocks open higher

U.S. stocks advanced in morning deals as investors looked toward the  interest rate announcement expected later in the day.

The  traded 225 points higher, or 0.5%. The  gained 0.4%, while the  added 0.3%.

— Pia Singh

Lowered guidance purely driven by dollar weakness, Pandora CEO says

Alexander Lacik, CEO of Pandora, discusses first-quarter results, revised 2025 guidance and explains how U.S. tariffs might impact the business.

German factory orders jumped more than expected in March

New manufacturing orders in Germany rose by 3.6% month on month on an adjusted basis, provisional data from the country's statistics bureau Destatis on Wednesday.

Analysts polled by Reuters had been expecting orders to increase by 1.3%.

The March figures marked the first rise in industrial orders for Germany this year.

— Chloe Taylor

European retail sales contracted in March

Retail sales fell by 0.1% month on month in both the euro zone and the European Union in March, preliminary data from statistics office Eurostat on Wednesday.

Countries that saw the biggest contraction in retail sales were Slovenia, where sales volumes were 2% lower on a monthly basis; Estonia, where sales fell by 1.3%; and Slovakia, where retail sales were down 0.9%.

— Chloe Taylor

UK construction output declined again in April

British construction activity continued to slide in April, S&P Global in its latest UK Construction PMI on Wednesday, marking the industry's fourth consecutive month of output declines amid rising business uncertainty.

Commercial projects had fallen at their fastest rate since mid-2020, researchers said, while cost pressures had led to a ramping up of job cuts in the sector.

However, S&P Global noted that April saw the slowest decline in total activity in three months, with house building showing resilience.

— Chloe Taylor

Volvo stock pares gains after U.S. layoffs announcement

Shares of Swedish carmaker were 0.1% higher at 10:54 a.m. London time, paring gains from earlier in the session.

It came after the company said it would cut 5% of the workforce at its Charleston, South Carolina plant, according to , with the company citing new trade tariffs and market conditions as drivers of the decision.

Volvo reportedly said the cuts were separate from the announced in its first-quarter earnings report last week.

A spokesperson for Volvo was not immediately available to respond when contacted by C온라인카지노사이트.

— Chloe Taylor

Orsted shares fall after Hornsea 4 project withdrawal

Wind farm operator on Wednesday that it would discontinue its Hornsea 4 project, a move expected to incur costs of up to 4.5 billion Danish krone this year ($680 million).

The company cited multiple "adverse developments" that had influenced its decision to withdraw funding for the project, including rising supply chain costs, higher interest rates, and greater risks involved with completing construction within the current timeline.

"These developments have increased the execution risk and deteriorated the value creation of the project," it said in a statement on Wednesday. "Therefore, Ørsted has taken the decision to stop further spend on the project at this time and terminate the project's supply chain contracts."

Hornsea 4 would have been Orsted's fourth windfarm site in the Hornsea Zone of the North Sea, with the U.K. government the company a contract last year to sell energy generated from the farm at 2012 prices. At the time, Orsted said it was targeting commissioning of the project by the end of 2030.

Wednesday also saw Orsted confirm its full-year guidance for 2025 and post an 18% year-on-year jump in operating profit. Quarterly operating profit came in at 8.87 billion Danish krone, above the 8.16 billion krone expected by analysts polled by LSEG.

Shares of Orsted were down 1.3% by 10:39 a.m. in London.

— Chloe Taylor

Health-care stocks slump

Regional health-care stocks led losses in Europe on Wednesday, with the Stoxx Healthcare index shedding 1.2% during early morning trade.

Medical device manufacturer was the biggest loser in the sector, with its stock falling 11.9% despite the company and assuring investors that it is "prepared and well-positioned to navigate" new U.S. tariffs. Ambu posted organic revenue growth of 11.7% in its fiscal second quarter, with revenue for the three months to March coming in at a worse-than-expected 1.55 billion Danish krone ($240 million).

Ambu is expecting organic revenue growth in the range of 11% to 14% this year.

At the other end of the sector index, shares were up 5% after the company and cut its 2025 outlook on weaker demand for its weight loss drug Wegovy.

Regional investors are also reacting to U.S. President Donald Trump's on Monday that sector-specific tariffs on pharmaceuticals would be announced within two weeks.

— Chloe Taylor

BMW confirms 2025 guidance amid ‘volatile’ tariffs

German carmaker BMW confirmed its full-year guidance on Wednesday, despite acknowledging "volatile developments" in relation to U.S. trade policy.

As it first-quarter revenues of 33.8 billion euros ($38.5 billion) — slightly below analyst expectations, according to LSEG data — BMW said it still expects 2025 earnings before tax to be flat from the previous year. Currency-adjusted revenues were down 8.7% from the previous year.

The company said that although vehicle deliveries fell by 1.4% year on year, its fully electric vehicles saw "significant sales growth" of 32.4% to account for a quarter of all sales.

Meanwhile, BMW's automotive EBIT margin, a key profit indicator, came in at 6.9% in the first quarter — putting it at the upper end of its 2025 target range of 5% to 7%.

The company said it expects demand to rise in many markets for the remainder of the year, while noting that permanent tariffs in the U.S. could lead to rising inflation.

However, BMW said it had already priced some of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs regime into its outlook.

"The guidance published … in March 2025 includes all tariff increases that had taken effect by 12 March 2025," it said in a news release on Wednesday. "Due to the volatile developments and ongoing negotiations, the potential impact of tariffs in the current financial year can only be estimated, based on assumptions."

The company added that it expects some U.S. tariff increases to be temporary, with reductions being rolled out from July.

"The forecast also includes mitigating measures to offset the impact of higher tariffs," BMW said of its outlook. "Given the sustained demand for its attractive premium vehicles, the BMW Group is able to confirm its guidance for the year."

— Chloe Taylor

Novo Nordisk cuts 2025 guidance, posts first-quarter profit beat

 on Wednesday reported a better-than-expected rise in first-quarter net profit but lowered its full-year sales growth forecast on weaker demand for its blockbuster Wegovy weight loss drugs amid increased competition from copycat compounders.

The Danish pharmaceutical giant's net profit came in at 29.03 billion Danish kroner ($4.4 billion) for the three-month period to the end of March, ahead of the 27.8 billion Danish kroner forecast by analysts in an LSEG poll.

Sales of the company's popular Wegovy obesity drug rose 83% annually at constant exchange rates to 17.36 billion Danish kroner, slightly below the 18.51 billion Danish kroner anticipated by analysts in a Factset poll Tuesday.

— Karen Gilchrist

Volatility to increase again amid continuing uncertainty, says TCW CEO Katie Koch

TCW CEO Katie Koch expects the rockiness to return to the markets as investors continue to digest economic data.

"There will be a lot of uncertainty," she said in an interview with C온라인카지노사이트's Sara Eisen from the sidelines of Tuesday. "This is a process and it's going to take time. We are going to continue to get a series of conflicting data points."

"We've got a lot of dry powder and we're excited for the opportunity to lean in when that happens," she added.

The path of the economy can range anywhere from a soft landing to a recession to stagflation, Koch said. At the moment, she said a recession is possible but is too difficult to predict.

In the meantime, selectivity is key across the board, she said. In equities, there are some bottom-up opportunities and in private credit, she sees an opportunity in rescue financing. Still, longer term, Koch still believes in the artificial intelligence revolution and the shortage of energy to support it.

"Do I think there is massive wealth creation opportunities in equity markets by allocating capital to AI and energy? 100%," Koch said. "I just think in the near term we've got a lot of volatility that we'll have to weave through."

— Michelle Fox

Stock futures rise on announcement of U.S.-China trade talks

Stock futures rallied after U.S. government spokespeople said that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and top trade official Jamieson Greer with their Chinese counterparts this week in Switzerland.

Investors can take this as an indicator of forthcoming developments on trade negotiations after President Donald Trump's tariff announcement last month ratcheted up volatility in the market.

— Alex Harring, Kevin Breuninger

European markets: Here are the opening calls

European markets are expected to open in mixed territory Wednesday.

The U.K.'s index is expected to open 6 points lower at 8,591, Germany's up 40 points at 23,276, France's  5 points higher at 7,696 and Italy's 26 points higher at 38,018, according to data from IG.

There's another busy day of earnings ahead with , , , , , , , , , , , and . Data releases include European retail sales.

— Holly Ellyatt