LONDON — European stocks closed lower on Thursday as global markets searched for new record highs to close out the year.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index provisionally closed down about 0.1%, with health care stocks adding 0.6% while banks dropped 0.5%.
The continental blue-chip index was last trading around the 478.21 mark, not far below the index's record closing high of 483.44 notched in November 2021.
Stateside, U.S. stocks were slightly higher after another day of modest gains on Wall Street, with the S&P 500 benchmark also closing in on a record high.
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Shares in Asia-Pacific closed mostly higher overnight, with markets in mainland China and Hong Kong leading gains and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 hovering near a two-year high. Japan's Nikkei 225 and Topix bucked the trend to post slight declines.
Trading volumes are expected to be thin during the last two days of the trading year, with fewer data points on the economic calendar and all major central bank meetings out of the way.
In terms of individual share price movement in Europe, Spanish utility company Endesa fell 3.7% to the bottom of the Stoxx 600, while Finnish crane manufacturer Konecranes rose 2.7% to lead the index.
Money Report
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