Major stock indices in Europe trading in the red zone

Stock indexes in Western Europe trading lower after shares of Ericsson collapsed. Investors were also cautious on the eve FOMC minutes

Market participants are waiting for the publication of September Fed meeting minnutes looking for hints of the future steps the central bank could take, as the chances of a rate hike in December exceeded 70% on Tuesday.

Some support for markets was data on industrial production in the euro area. Industrial output in the euro zone rebounded in August, as most of the sub-sectors grew in July, showed Eurostat. Industrial production expanded by 1.6 percent in August from July, when it fell a revised 0.7 percent. Among the components, the production of energy and capital goods increased by 3.3 percent and 3.5 percent respectively while the production of consumer durables advanced 4.3 percent, production of consumer non-durable goods fell by 0.6 percent. Production of intermediate goods increased by 1.4 percent. In annual terms, industrial output grew by 1.8 percent, in contrast to the fall of 0.5 percent in July. The annual rate is also faster than the expected increase of 1.1 percent.

The composite index of the largest companies in the region Stoxx Europe 600 fell by 0.08% - to 339.89 points.

Share of the Swedish Ericsson collapsed by more than 17%. The world's largest manufacturer of equipment for wireless networks, announced that financial results for the third quarter will be worse than expected. Revenue, in July-September amounted to $ 5.79 billion, which is 14% less than the same period last year. At the same time, operating income fell by 93%

This message caused the decline in prices of other securities of the industry, including Nokia, by -5.4%.

Research firm Gartner released a forecast that capex semiconductor manufacturers will decline by 0.3% in 2016.

At the same time, the market capitalization of the German chemical company BASF SE increased at th opening of the market by 1.6% on a less sharp fall in operating profit in the last quarter, compared with analysts' forecasts.

In addition, Peugeot shares rose 1.2% due to higher sales in China (29% in September compared to the same month last year).

Shares of British Old Mutual fell 1.4% after reports that the insurance company has already tried to start negotiations with Old Mutual Wealth buyers, the British division, which analysts estimated at 3-4 billion pounds.

EasyJet shares rose 2.3% after the airline said Tuesday that it plans to improve the existing base in Germany, before starting to expand to other airports, such as Frankfurt.

At the moment:

FTSE 7045.70 -25.18 -0.36%

DAX 10561.92 -15.24 -0.14%

CAC 4462.37 -9.37 -0.21%