European shares slip at open with US elections in the spotlight

Europe's STOXX 600 edged lower in early trading on Tuesday as some downbeat earnings, including from Danish firm Vestas and UK's Schroders, weighed, while all eyes remained on the U.S. presidential election.

The pan-European benchmark had slipped 0.2% as of 0814 GMT, with the oil and gas index's 0.7% decline the most among the major sectors.

Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump remain neck and neck in opinion polls, with voters due to cast their ballots later in the day, although the winner will likely not be known for days after voting ends.


Vestas, the world's largest maker of wind turbines, slid 9.1% after reporting a lower-than-expected third-quarter operating profit and saying it expects its full-year operating profit margin to be at the lower end of its forecast.

Schroders shed 12.5% after the British asset manager reported net outflows of client funds of 2.3 billion pounds ($3 billion) for the quarter to end-September.

On the bright side, Bouygues added 4.1% after the French construction-to-telecoms group posted nine-month core earnings slightly above expectations.

Belgian chemical maker Syensqo rose 6.5% early on after it unveiled plans to cut around 2% of its workforce and tightened its annual underlying profit forecast for the second time since August.