European shares slip ahead of US inflation data

June 10 (Reuters) – European shares on Friday extended losses to a fourth consecutive session, ahead of US inflation data that could spur more speculation about the Federal Reserve’s policy decision next week.

All sectors were trading in red with banks weighing the most in the pan-European STOXX 600 index, which lost 0.7% by 0704 GMT, on course to end the week about 2% lower.

The US Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index is expected to have accelerated to 0.7% last month from 0.3% in April. But when stripped of volatile food and energy products, it is seen cooling a nominal 0.1 percentage point to 0.5%.

The data is due at 1230 GMT on Friday, with growing bets that the US Fed will increase beyond the two 50 bps hike it plans for next week and July.

This comes a day after equities were hammered following the European Central Bank’s clues that it would deliver next month its first interest rate hike since 2011, and a potentially larger move in September.

Among individual stocks, GSK (GSK) jumped 2.4% after the drugmaker said its vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus was successful in a late-stage trial involving older adults.

(Reporting by Susan Mathew in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)