European Markets Finished With Mixed Results After Weale Comments

(RTTNews) - The European markets got off to a positive start Monday. Early gains were driven by the takeover of British chip maker ARM Holdings and the failed coup attempt in Turkey. However, the markets reversed after Bank of England policymaker Martin Weale said there is little urgency to cut interest rates. The markets ended the choppy trading session with mixed results.

The uncertainty from "Brexit" suggests waiting for firmer evidence before taking any action, Bank of England policymaker Martin Weale said Monday.

"This uncertainty points to the argument that we should wait for firmer evidence before making any policy change and least in the absence of any strong arguments for an immediate change," Weale said in his final speech as a member of the monetary policy committee.

Nonetheless, the short-term impact on demand will be more severe than that on supply, dampening inflation, he said.

Weale today rejected the argument that markets would be disappointed were there to be no easing in August, The bank "is not a nurse to markets." He reminded that the MPC sets policy each month, not in advance.

The banker gives little weight to the argument that early action is needed to reassure people, noting there was no sign consumers or businesses were "panic-struck."

"For there to be a case for easing policy I will need to expect weakness in output to be large enough more than to compensate for any overshoot in inflation on the assumption that policy is unchanged in the near term," Weale said.

Turkey has arrested 6,000 people after a failed coup, with President Erdogan vowing to purge state bodies of the "virus" that caused the revolt.

Erdogan's top military aide Col Ali Yazici is among those now in custody.

The overall death toll for the weekend violence has risen to 290. More than 100 of those were participating in the coup.

Bundesbank proposed to give more powers to the European Stability Mechanism and also to alter the current terms of government bond contracts.

In its monthly report released Monday, Bundesbank said the ESM, the permanent bailout fund should be given power to overview government budgets, debt sustainability and financial needs of a country seeking financial assistance.

The Bundesbank also recommended to include a term into government bond contract that automatically extend the maturities of newly issued bonds for the duration of an assistance program without triggering a credit event.

The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks decreased 0.32 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, added 0.06 percent.

The DAX of Germany dipped 0.04 percent and the CAC 40 of France fell 0.34 percent. The FTSE 100 of the U.K. gained 0.39 percent and the SMI of Switzerland finished higher by 0.07 percent.

In Frankfurt, forklift manufacturer Kion Group jumped 1.51 percent after reporting an increase in its second quarter profit and backing its full-year outlook.

In London, ARM Holdings soared 40.87 percent after Japan's SoftBank Group Corp agreed to buy the chip designer for 24.3 billion pounds ($32 billion).

Thomas Cook and TUI tumbled around 1 to 2 percent on concerns that the fallout from this weekend's Turkish coup will hurt the country's consumers and companies in the tourism field.

Roche declined 0.94 percent in Zurich, after Genentech announced that the Phase III GOYA study of Gazyva plus CHOP chemotherapy in people with previously untreated diffuse large B-cell lymphoma did not meet its primary endpoint.

SBM Offshore surged 15.32 percent in Amsterdam. On Friday, the company signed a leniency deal with Brazil's federal prosecutors and Petroleo Brasileiro SA that closes out the inquiries of the MPF, the MTFC and Petrobras into the payment of undue advantages to employees of Petrobras.

The average asking price of a house in the United Kingdom was down 0.9 percent on month in July, property tracking website Rightmove said on Monday - coming in at 307,824 pounds. That followed the 0.8 percent increase in June.

British retailers logged the steepest decline in footfall since early 2014, data published by the British Retail Consortium and Springboard showed Monday. In June, footfall dropped 2.8 percent in June from last year, bigger than the 0.3 percent increase in May. This was the sharpest fall since February 2014.

Homebuilder confidence in the U.S. unexpectedly saw a modest deterioration in the month of July, according to a report released by the National Association of Home Builders on Monday. The report said the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index edged down by a point to 59 in July after climbing by two points to 60 in June. Economists had expected the index to inch up to 61.