European shares fall ahead of inflation data

European shares fell on Friday, as semiconductor shares led the decline after tepid expectations from US chip maker Micron, while investors awaited euro zone inflation data to build their expectations about the pace of interest rate hikes.

Dutch semiconductor equipment company ASML, French-Italian chip maker ST Microelectronics and German chip maker Infineon fell by 3.1% to 4.1% after Micron announced much weaker forecasts. expected for its business.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.8 percent by 0709 GMT, a day after it recorded its worst quarterly performance since the big drop due to the Corona pandemic in early 2020, and followed in the footsteps of a bleak session for Wall Street, which fell due to data that exacerbated fears about a recession.

The mining and oil and gas sector indexes fell by about 0.3 percent each, with commodity prices falling due to concerns about demand.

Preliminary estimates of the consumer price index for the month of June for the eurozone are due at 0900 GMT, and inflation is likely to accelerate to a record 8.4 percent from 8.1 percent in May.

Sodexo rose 2.3 percent after the French food and meal catering group reported good third-quarter revenue, citing strong growth across all business segments and geographies.