(Bloomberg) -- Declines in health-care shares sent European stocks lower for a fourth day after U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to lower the cost of medicines.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.3 percent at the close. Shire Plc, Novartis AG and Hikma Pharmaceuticals Plc led losses among drugmakers, down at least 1.6 percent each, after Trump said in a Twitter post he's working on a “new system where there will be competition in the drug industry.”
- The Stoxx 600 has fallen in recent sessions after surging to a 15-month high last week on rising bets for a Federal Reserve rate increase. Traders are pricing in a 98 percent chance of a hike at next week's Fed meeting.
- Investors will also focus on the European Central Bank on Thursday. No major changes to policy are expected, according to a Bloomberg survey of analysts, though respondents predict a change to quantitative easing will be announced in September.
- French presidential candidate Francois Fillon, under suspicion of misusing public funds and is facing a criminal probe, has won the support from the leadership of his Republican party to stay on as a candidate in the race. France's CAC 40 index lost 0.4 percent.
- Still, Jefferies equity strategists upgraded French equities to bullish from modestly bullish. “Both European and French macro data continues to improve,” they wrote in a note. “The technical backdrop for the equity market also appears constructive.”
- Aggreko Plc fell 13 percent, the most among Stoxx 600 members, after saying revenue fell last year and profit before tax will be lower in 2017.
--With assistance from Elena Popina
To contact the reporter on this story: Aleksandra Gjorgievska in London at agjorgievska@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Celeste Perri at cperri@bloomberg.net, Todd White, Namitha Jagadeesh
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