Europe markets close marginally lower as oil stocks fall; UK pound hits 10-month high

Europe's Stoxx 600 index closed 0.05% lower on Tuesday, its second straight session of narrow losses after solid gains last week.

Germany's DAX closed 0.14% higher and France's CAC 40 was flat. Where they had boosted the energy-heavy index on Monday, a 1.3% fall in oil and gas stocks took the U.K.'s FTSE 100 to a 0.5% loss.

Mining was the second-weakest sector, down 0.8%, despite earlier Stoxx 600 gains being led by Swiss mining firm Glencore, whose hostile takeover bid for Canada's Teck Resources was rejected.

— Jenni Reid

The "onus" for the Bank of England "remains on ensuring enough monetary tightening is delivered to 'see the job through' and sustainably return inflation to target," its chief economist, Huw Pill, said in remarks published ahead of a speech in Geneva this evening.

Pill said that while some effects from rate rises were yet to come and headline inflation would fall due to a combination of base effects and falls in energy prices, "caution" was needed due to "the potential persistence of domestically generated inflation."

Sterling continued to trade higher against the dollar following the publication of the remarks, and touched a fresh 10-month high of $1.2525 as investors also processed a fall in U.S. job openings. The FTSE 100 traded at a session low, down 0.3% on the day.

U.K. inflation unexpectedly rose to 10.4% in February. The Bank of England last month hiked rates by 25 basis points to 4.25%, its eleventh consecutive interest rate rise.

— Jenni Reid

U.S. job openings plunged in February in a sign that the ultra-tight labor market may be loosening up.

Available positions fell to 9.93 million for the month, down more than 600,000 from January and well below the FactSet estimate of 10.4 million, according to a Labor Department report Tuesday.

The decline marked the first time openings were below 10 million since May 2021.

Separations and hires also both moved lower though quits rose to just over 4 million.

—Jeff Cox

Sterling hit a 10-month high against the U.S. dollar of $1.2521 shortly before 10 a.m. London time before declining moderately into the afternoon.

It traded 0.5% higher on the previous session at $1.2478 at 2:30 p.m.

In a morning speech, Bank of England external Monetary Policy Committee member Silvana Tenreyro said she expected the central bank would need "an earlier and faster reversal" of its key rate "to avoid a significant inflation undershoot."

The bank's chief economist, Huw Pill, will release remarks at 3:30 p.m ahead of a speech this evening.

The pound is also benefiting from a weakening of the dollar, analysts at ING said, as analysts continue to re-evaluate the Federal Reserve's likely rate path following the spike in oil prices this week.

Eyes will be on the release of the U.S. Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey at 3 p.m. London time for further clues.

— Jenni Reid

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite each rose by 0.1%, while the Dow Jones Industrials dipped slightly to start Tuesday's session.

— Fred Imbert

Aneeka Gupta, director of research at WisdomTree Investments, discusses the outlook for equities.

Bruno Verstraete, partner at Lakefield Partners, says Switzerland fears "it's almost too big to rescue."

Vincent Kaufmann, CEO of Ethos Foundation, which represents pension funds comprising between 3% and 5% of Credit Suisse shareholders, gives his opinion on the bank's rescue by UBS ahead of its AGM.

Shares of UBS and Credit Suisse rose after the latter hosted its final annual general meeting before the takeover.

Shares of both UBS and Credit Suisse saw a 1.3% uptick from the start of trade, increasing modest gains from earlier in the session.

Credit Suisse chairman Axel Lehmann told shareholders he was "truly sorry" for the collapse that led to the bank's takeover by UBS.

"It is a sad day for you and for us too. I can understand the bitterness, the anger and the shock of all those who are disappointed, overwhelmed and affected by the developments," Lehmann said at the bank's annual meeting, the first time its leaders have addressed the public since the rescue.

— Hannah Ward-Glenton and Elliot Smith

Martijn Rats, chief commodities strategist at Morgan Stanley, speaks to CNBC about OPEC's surprise oil production cut.

L'Oreal agreed to buy Australian luxury brand Aesop from Natura & Co for an enterprise value of $2.53 billion, according to a press release.

Aesop posted sales of $537 million last year, and the acquisition plays into L'Oreal's plans to expand in China and in travel retail.

Shares of L'Oreal were up 0.2% around 9 a.m. London time.

— Hannah Ward-Glenton

Credit Suisse will face shareholders for the first time since the bank was rescued by UBS last month at an annual general meeting in Zurich later today.

It is Credit Suisse's first AGM in around four years and shareholders are expected to react to the fact that they were denied a vote on UBS' $3.25 billion takeover of the beleaguered lender.

Credit Suisse opted to remove certain items from the meeting agenda following its collapse, including the discharge of management and plans for a bonus linked to the bank's transformation plan.

Shares of Credit Suisse were up 0.5% in early trade, while shares of UBS traded 0.6% higher.

— Hannah Ward-Glenton

Bank of America has added a global aerospace giant to its "top 10 best ideas" list for the second quarter of 2023.

The Wall Street bank cited several factors, including supply chain improvements and increased demand, for adding the stock to the list.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Ganesh Rao

JPMorgan analysts said that the move by OPEC+ was a "preemptive" move and that it had expected similar measures to come earlier.

"We view the current reduction in supply as a preemptive measure, assuring that surpluses that started accumulating in the global oil market since mid-2022 don't extend into the second half of 2023 as the global economy slows following almost 400 bps of cumulative hikes since 2022," analysts including Natasha Kaneva wrote in a late Sunday note.

Contrary to Goldman Sachs that raised its forecast for Brent oil rising to $95 per barrel by December 2023, JPMorgan said their forecast remains unchanged at $89 in the second quarter of this year – rising to $94 by the fourth quarter of 2023 and ending the year at $96 per barrel.

– Jihye Lee

Wall Street strategists appear unconvinced that U.S. stocks are the best place to be looking ahead — despite a strong first quarter performance.

Against this backdrop, where should investors put their money?

Here's what the pros think.

— Zavier Ong

European markets are expected to open higher Thursday.

The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index is expected to open 22 points higher at 8,442, Germany's DAX up 26 points at 18,896, France's CAC 7 points higher at 8,244 and Italy's FTSE MIB up 64 points at 35,091, according to data from IG.

Earnings are due from Swiss Re, Zurich Insurance, Siemens, Deutsche Telekom, BT and EasyJet, among others. There are no major data releases.

— Holly Ellyatt