European Stocks Close Lower in Tuesday Trading; UK Unemployment Rises to 5.1%

12:09 PM EST, 01/20/2026 (MT Newswires) -- European stock markets closed lower in Tuesday trading as the Stoxx Europe dropped 0.70%, Germany's DAX was down 1.03%, the FTSE 100 fell 0.67%, France's CAC lost 0.61%, and the Swiss Market Index declined 0.81%.

In the UK, the unemployment rate for the three months from September through November was 5.1%, which was up from 4.4% during the same period the previous year, according to the Office for National Statistics.

In Germany, producer prices for industrial products declined 2.5% in December, compared with a year earlier, according to Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), which also reported that producer prices were down 0.2% in December compared with November.

In Switzerland, the Producer and Import Price Index was down 0.2% in December compared with the previous month to 104.3 points, according to the Swiss Federal Statistical Office. Compared with a year earlier, the price level of the whole range of domestic and imported products declined 1.8%.

And in corporate news, Shell has asked to withdraw from the largest oilfield in Syria and transfer its share to Syria's state-owned operators, Reuters reported Monday, citing head of the Syrian Petroleum Company, Youssef Qeblawi.

The al-Omar oilfield, which operated as a joint venture between the Syrian Petroleum Company and Shell, came under government control over the weekend after being held by Kurdish forces for nearly a decade, according to the report.

Shell declined to comment when reached by MT Newswires.

Shares of the British oil and gas giant were off 0.3% in London.

BHP Group plans to go to an appeals court after a high court judge refused to grant it a permission to appeal an earlier ruling that found the company liable for a 2015 dam disaster in Brazil, a company spokesperson told MT Newswires.

The refusal was issued Monday, with the high court judge saying "the appeal has no real prospect of success" and that "there is no other compelling reason for the appeal to be heard."

A BHP spokesperson told MT Newswires in an e-mailed statement that the company "will continue to robustly defend the remaining phases of this action in parallel."

The mining company also said Tuesday that its detailed review for the first stage of the Jansen potash project confirms that its total investment estimate will increase to $8.4 billion from a previously estimated range of $7 billion to $7.4 billion in July 2025.

Most of this cost increase comes from construction hours and quantities of materials that were not included in previous execution cost estimates, the company said.

Shares of BHP declined 2% in London.

Novo Nordisk and Aspect Biosystems said Tuesday they are planning to develop advanced cellular medicines for diabetes.

Aspect has acquired rights to stem cell-derived islet cell and hypoimmune cell engineering technologies from Novo Nordisk, the companies said, adding that Aspect will lead development, manufacturing and commercialization, while Novo Nordisk will hold rights to expand its role in later-stage development and commercialization.

Shares of the Danish pharmaceutical company were up 3.2% in Copenhagen.

AstraZeneca said Tuesday it has filed a notice of voluntary withdrawal of its American depositary shares, comprising ordinary shares of $0.25 apiece.

Effective Jan. 30, the company will cease trading its ADSs and debt securities on Nasdaq.

The company also said it plans to complete a direct listing of its ordinary shares and debt securities on the New York Stock Exchange, also effective on that date. It will begin trading on NYSE on Feb. 2.

AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo said Monday the European Medicines Agency has validated the type II variation marketing authorization application for their drug, Enhertu, as a first-line treatment for patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.

The validation was based on a 1,157-patient phase 3 trial result that showed Enhertu in combination with pertuzumab "significantly improved" progression-free survival, compared with current first-line standard of care in HER2-positive inoperable or metastatic breast cancer, the companies said.

Shares of the British pharmaceutical company fell 2.8% in London

GSK said Tuesday it has agreed to acquire RAPT Therapeutics (RAPT) for $58 per share at closing, for an estimated equity value of $2.2 billion.

The deal, expected to close in Q1, would give GSK global rights to RAPT's experimental drug, ozureprubart, to prevent food allergy reactions. This excludes mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, the company said.

The British pharmaceutical company also said Tuesday that it and Japan's Shionogi have reached an agreement with Pfizer for Shionogi to acquire Pfizer's 11.7% stake in ViiV Healthcare for about $2.13 billion.

Under the terms of the deal, ViiV Healthcare will issue new shares to Shionogi and cancel Pfizer's holding, the companies said.

Pfizer will receive $1.88 billion in cash while GSK will receive a special dividend of $250 million, payable in UK pounds, the companies said.

Shares of GSK were down 1.6% in London.

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