LONDON -- European equity markets are seeing a negative session Wednesday, with a series of weak earnings results placing pressure on the benchmark indexes. The U.K.'s Bank of England reduced its GDP growth estimate for the country to near zero in its monthly inflation report today, adding yet more pressure for the markets to fight against. U.S. equities look set to follow in Europe's footsteps at the open, with early premarket trade showing the S&P 500 (INDEX: ^GSPC) down 0.3%.
Even amid this underperformance, however, there are a number of individual names seeing even deeper losses. Here are three American depositary receipts the S&P should beat today.
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (NYSE: BBVA)
The Spanish bank is down more than 2% Wednesday, continuing to see selling pressure after reporting a 58% fall in profit last week. BBVA's shares are also being dragged lower by profit-taking after a decent performance yesterday offered an opportunity to sell. Yesterday's gains were mostly part of a broader move by Spanish banks, but they were pushed by only light trading volumes.
ING Groep (NYSE: ING)
The Dutch financial is down 1.7% today after it reported weaker-than-expected earnings results. The company said profit in the second quarter fell 22% after it sold Spanish investments at a loss and booked an increase in bad loans. ING also reported net income of 1.17 billion euros, falling short of the majority of estimates, which expected something in the region of 1.2 billion euros to 1.3 billion euros.
The company is making efforts to reduce its risk and European exposure, reducing its Spanish assets by 6.2 billion euros to 34.9 billion euros in the quarter. At the same time, it saw a 156 million euro loss on its book for Q2, with a 76 million euro loss booked in July.
Nokia (NYSE: NOK)
The Finnish phone maker is seeing yet another day of pressure, down 1.5% today as concerns over the poor sales of its Lumia handset continue to loom. The company's stock put in a fair performance yesterday following news that it will release its new Windows 8 phone in early September, ahead of Apple's new iPhone. However, the poor sales of Nokia's Lumia range and the company's struggle to convince U.S. providers to stock the unfortunate phones are never far from investors' minds.
As usual, this morning's European trading saw some stocks lose ground -- and perhaps provide some European buying opportunities. Indeed, legendary investor Warren Buffett has recently spent more than $1 billion buying a European large-cap stock that's currently trading well below its 2012 high. If you want to know what Buffett has bought within Europe, this special Motley Fool report -- "The One European Share Warren Buffett Loves" -- reveals everything, including the price he paid. You can download the report today for free, but hurry -- it's available for a limited time only.
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