TPRKY Travis Perkins PLC (PK)

By Riva Gold 

Global stocks struggled for traction Wednesday after above-forecast corporate results spurred Wall Street's biggest advance this month.

The Stoxx Europe 600 inched down 0.2% in morning trade, led lower by the rate-sensitive real estate and telecom sectors, while futures pointed to a 0.1% opening loss for the S&P 500.

Investors largely focused on Chinese economic data and a fresh round of corporate earnings.

Shares of Intel Corp. slid nearly 6% in after-hours trading after the company's estimate for revenue came in slightly below analyst projections, while Yahoo Inc. rose over 1% after the company posted an increase in third-quarter profits.

Shares of Travis Perkins PLC were down nearly 6%, leading declines in European stocks, after the U.K. building-products supplier warned that earnings would come in below expectations and announced the closure of 30 branches.

Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC shares were down 3% after the consumer goods group lowered its target for full-year sales growth.

Earlier, markets in Asia were mixed as investors digested official data from China. China's economy expanded 6.7% in the third quarter from a year earlier and retail sales data jumped 10.7%, both roughly in line with market expectations. But industrial output, which gained 6.1% from a year earlier, came in slightly below forecasts.

Investors have been watching data on the world's second-largest economy more closely in recent sessions after surprisingly downbeat Chinese trade figures last week sparked losses in global equity markets.

Stocks in Hong Kong fell 0.4% while Shanghai shares were flat after the data were released, even as markets in Japan and Australia had inched higher, bolstered by the strong finish on Wall Street and a rising oil price.

Brent crude oil was up 1.2% at $52.28 a barrel after data suggested that U.S. crude inventories likely dipped last week. Official data will be released by the Energy Information Administration later Wednesday.

In currencies, the WSJ Dollar Index inched down 0.1%, with the dollar down 0.3% against the yen but up 0.2% against the British pound.

The euro inched up 0.1% against the dollar to $1.0996 after falling for five of the past seven sessions. European Central Bank officials will gather in Frankfurt for a policy meeting on Thursday, but no major announcement is expected.

Kenan Machado and Olga Cotaga contributed to this article.

Write to Riva Gold at riva.gold@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 19, 2016 05:06 ET (09:06 GMT)

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