European stocks opened lower Tuesday as diminished hopes of a rate cut from the U.S. Federal Reserve this month continue to dampen investor sentiment.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 fell 0.3% at 388.37 after the opening bell, chemicals stocks plunging 2.2% while autos and basic resources both fell by more than 1.2% as almost all sectors entered negative territory.

Markets are struggling to shrug off sharply reduced expectations that the Fed will deliver a large rate cut by the end of the month, following surprisingly strong U.S. job growth for June.

Asian stocks mostly continued to slide Tuesday, led by Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index, which fell 0.8% as leader Carrie Lam said the controversial extradition bill which sparked mass protests in the Asian financial hub “is dead.”

Source : CNBC