European markets close lower on ‘super Thursday’ earnings day

European stocks closed lower on Thursday, as traders focused on a raft of earnings reports from some of Europe’s biggest companies.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was provisionally down 0.2% at the end of the trading session.

SAP plummeted to the bottom of the pan-European index, tumbling 16% — its largest drop since 2020 — which also dragged Germany’s DAX

 1% lower. The German software manufacturer’s fourth-quarter results showed its cloud revenue falling short of consensus estimates, with the company warning that cloud backlog growth would “slightly decelerate” in 2026.

Among sectors, basic resources companies led the way with a 3.2% gain, while European bank stocks were up 0.6%, and financial services added 1.4%, in a busy morning for earnings in the banking sector.

Shares in ABB popped 8% on Thursday after the Swiss multinational engineering group’s fourth-quarter results revealed a 36% spike in orders, a total of $10.32 billion, which was a quarterly record for the Zurich-headquartered company.