The European markets ended Tuesday's session solidly in negative territory, extending the losses from the previous day. Global equity markets are under pressure due to continued worries over growth. Traders remain cautious ahead of a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Argentina later this month.
Meanwhile, traders continue to monitor the latest Brexit developments. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney welcomed the draft Brexit deal and the transition arrangement that the British Prime Minister Theresa May struck with the European Union last week, but warned that the risks of a "no-deal, no-transition" scenario remained very high.
Speaking at a Treasury Select Committee hearing on Tuesday, Carney said, "We welcome the transition arrangements in the withdrawal agreement."
"We also take note of the possibility of extending that transition period," he added.
The draft Brexit withdrawal deal sees the UK leaving the European Union on March 29, 2019 and the transition period will begin from that day to last until December 31, 2020.
The deal allows for extension of transition beyond 2020 which, according to Carney, was essential as trade deals take an average four years to negotiate.
The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index weakened by 1.14 percent. The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone blue chip stocks decreased 1.40 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, lost 0.74 percent.
The DAX of Germany dropped 1.58 percent and the CAC of France fell 1.22 percent. The FTSE 100 of the U.K. declined 0.76 percent and the SMI of Switzerland finished lower by 0.49 percent.
In Frankfurt, chemicals giant BASF dropped 4.11 percent. The company said that about 20,000 employees worldwide would be directly or indirectly affected by reorganization.
Payments firm Wirecard lost 5.27 percent after it forecast core earnings to be between 740 and 800 million euros for 2019.
In Paris, Renault fell 1.19 percent to extend the previous session's slump after CEO Carlos Ghosn was arrested.
In London, BHP Billiton lost 2.33 percent as the mining giant settled a long-standing transfer dispute with the Australian tax authority over commodity payments made to its Singapore marketing business.
Low-cost airline easyJet tumbled 5.49 percent despite posting strong financial results for fiscal 2018.
Industrial software firm AVEVA sank 6.04 percent after announcing solid interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2018.
Food and support services company Compass Group jumped 5.35 percent after reporting a rise in FY18 underlying profit and hiking dividend.
Germany's industrial producer prices rose at the fastest pace in 18 months during October, figures from the Federal Statistical Office showed on Tuesday. Producer prices rose 3.3 percent year-on-year following a 3.2 percent increase in September. The increase matched economists' expectations.
France's jobless rate was unchanged in the third quarter from the previous three months, preliminary data from INSEE showed on Tuesday.
The ILO unemployment rate for the metropolitan France was 8.8 percent, unchanged from the second quarter, but was 0.5 points lower than a year ago. The number of unemployed rose by 22,000 sequentially to 2.6 million persons.
Housing starts in the U.S. rebounded in the month of October, according to a report released by the Commerce Department on Tuesday, although the report also showed a decrease in building permits. The Commerce Department said housing starts jumped by 1.5 percent to an annual rate of 1.228 million in October after plunging by 5.5 percent to a revised rate of 1.210 million in September.
Economists had expected housing starts to climb to a rate of 1.225 million from the 1.201 million originally reported for the previous month.
Meanwhile, the report said building permits fell by 0.6 percent to an annual rate of 1.263 million in October after surging up by 1.7 percent to an upwardly revised 1.270 million in September. Building permits, an indicator of future housing demand, had been expected to increase to 1.267 million from the 1.241 million originally reported for the previous month.
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