By Riva Gold 

Global stocks tilted lower Wednesday amid concerns about corporate earnings reports, while the British pound began to stabilize from steep overnight swings.

The Stoxx Europe 600 inched down 0.1% in morning trade, following losses in Asia and on Wall Street.

The technology sector was down 2%, leading declines in Europe, after Ericsson AB issued a profit warning for the third quarter. Shares in the Swedish company fell over 17% as the news came a week it announced plans to slash almost 20% of its domestic workforce. Nordic rival Nokia Corp. fell 4.9%.

In currencies, the British pound was last up 0.2% to $1.2277 after four consecutive days of losses sent sterling to a new three-decade low on Tuesday.

The British currency had fallen sharply late Tuesday, but recovered during Asian trading hours, rising more than 1.5% against the dollar, after media reports suggested that U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May had agreed to hold a parliamentary vote on her plans for taking Britain out of the European Union.

Analysts said the development, if confirmed, could limit her ability to push for a "hard Brexit." The reports spurred some traders to temporarily lift some short of their positions on the currency, but analysts warned that the news is unlikely to reverse the broader downward trend for sterling.

"This many not monumentally change the political landscape," strategists at Nomura wrote in a note.

The WSJ Dollar index, which measures the dollar against a basket of 16 currencies, inched down 0.1% on Wednesday after its biggest daily gain since August.

The euro fell 0.3% against the dollar to $1.1025, while the dollar rose 0.1% against the yen.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was up slightly at 1.773% from 1.760% on Tuesday.

Futures pointed to a 0.1% opening loss for the S&P 500, after a disappointing start to the third-quarter earnings season spurred a selloff on Wall Street in the previous session.

Earlier, shares in Asia mostly followed Wall Street lower as expectations rose for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in December. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 1.1% while the Hang Seng Index fell 0.8%, weighed by the property sector.

Minutes from the Fed's September meeting are due later Wednesday. Policy makers voted to leave rates unchanged but three officials dissented in favor of an increase, so investors will watch closely for further insight into the debate.

"We're a market that is run by central banks right now," said Bret Chesney, portfolio manager at Alpine Global.

Fed-fund futures, used by investors to bet on central bank policy, currently imply a nearly 70% of a rate rise in December, according to CME Group.

Hiroyuki Kachi and

Matthias Verbergt

contributed to this article.

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

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 12, 2016 05:17 ET (09:17 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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