Yesterday, European stocks were mainly dropping. The upward trend in risk assets gradually faded away. The STOXX Europe 600 index fell by 0.06% to 419.2. Today's a 0.37% nosedive of STOXX 600 has been even more pronounced.

Yesterday, Compagnie Generale des Etablissements Michelin, a French leading tyre manufacturing company, revealed a steep fall in income in 2020. To improve the situation, the company's management decided to increase dividends from €2 to €2.30 per share. As a result, Michelin's shares advanced by 0.3%.

Shares of Glencore Plc skyrocketed by 2.4%. In 2020, the Swiss commodity trading company generated profits in the second six months, but incurred losses in the first six month of the year.

TechnipFMC shares plunged by 6.8%. The decline came after TechnipFMC and Technip Energies completed the planned separation. Meanwhile, Technip Energies shares soared by as much as 41.1% on the first trading day after the separation.

Yesterday revealed a poor performance of the major European stock indices. Today, a possible rise in the inflation rate has given serious cause for concern to investors. European stocks went down from almost annual highs during the European trading session.

STOXX 600 dropped by 0.37%, Germany's DAX fell by 0.53%, while the French CAC 40 index tumbled by 0.25%.

Today, the UK's inflation data pushed European stock exchanges even further down. Thus, inflation in the United Kingdom accelerated to 0.7% y/y in January, up from 0.6% in December. The UK's consumer prices fell by 0.2% m/m. Notably, analysts had expected the reading to increase by 0.6% y/y and 0.4% m/m. The inflation rate in the UK rose by more than expected. As a result, the Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 index lost 0.4%.

According to Eurostat, the economy of 19 euro-area countries plunged by 0.6% in Q4 2020. The eurozone's GDP shrank by 5% y/y. Meanwhile, economists had expected the economy to slow down by 0.7% in the fourth quarter of 2020 and 5.1% year-on-year.

At the same time, two versions of the AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine have been given WHO Emergency Use Listing.