Europe Stocks lower; Greece, Bond Selloff weigh

European equities were lower on Tuesday as bond markets sold off, amid a raft of corporate earnings and as talks between Greece and euro zone finance ministers continue.

Symbol	Name	Price		Change	%Change	Volume
FTSE	FTSE 100 Index	6934.90		-94.95	-1.35%	607341373
DAX	DAX Index	11475.92		-197.43	-1.69%	71853430
CAC 40	CAC 40 Index	4974.50		-53.37	-1.06%	97595170
IBEX 35	IBEX 35 Idx	11326.60		-119.20	-1.04%	154072492

The pan-European Euro Stoxx 600 Index was sharply lower showing a loss of around 1.5 percent. The German DAX and showed losses of 2 percent and the French CAC was lower by 1.3 percent.

Safe-haven bond markets succumbed to heavy selling once more on Tuesday, sending equity markets down sharply while the euro jumped 1 percent against the dollar.

The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield, which moves in the opposite direction to the price, rose to about 2.35 percent, the highest level since December, and Germany’s 10-year Bund yield soared over 10 basis points to about 0.72 percent.

U.K.-listed airline easyJet fell to the bottom of the benchmark, with a loss of of close to 10 percent. The company reported a swing to profit in its first-half results but analysts were nervy on its outlook for the rest of the year.

Danish brewer Carlsberg saw its shares fall over 4 percent at the open as it kept its 2015 outlook unchanged and reported a loss for the first quarter, highlighting volatility at its Russian operations.

Shares of Deutsche Post slipped around 5 percent as it posted a profit drop Tuesday morning and said it was reviewing its restructuring costs.

Meanwhile, shares of Ahold and Delhaize rose again following confirmation that they are holding talks over a possible merger.

Across the Atlantic, U.S. stocks opened lower on Tuesday as the continued gains in bond yields kept investors on edge.

Dow Jones Industrial Average quickly fell more than 100 points in the open. The major indices declined, with all 10 S&P 500 sectors declining.

Greece in focus

Greece’s progress on reforms was the main subject of debate at yet another round of talks between the country and the Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers in Brussels on Monday. Without reform, the country cannot receive a vital tranche of bailout aid worth 7.2 billion euros ($8.03 billion).

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the head of the Eurogroup, said Greece could start receiving some emergency funding if it begins reforms agreed with its creditors. However, he warned that a referendum on Greece’s bailout program could delay any aid disbursement.

His comments were in line with remarks made by a Greek government official who told CNBC Monday that Greece could get some kind of “transitional deal.”

Source: CNBC