Live Markets-ASML can't stem the selling tide in Europe

Two punchy earnings beats weren't enough to keep the STOXX 600 in positive territory on Wednesday as worries the situation in the Gulf would send oil prices and interest rates higher lingered in traders' minds.

The broad index .STOXX was down 0.3%, walking back some of the previous day's gains that had been driven by softer-than-expected U.S. inflation numbers.

That decline even came as Europe's largest company ASML's ASML.AS shares rose 5.5% after a strong earnings beat. Meanwhile, shares in luxury retailer Richemont rose 5.9%, also after results, which helped the broader luxury sector to climb 2.4%. .STXLUXP

Europe was also bucking the global trend, with U.S. futures a touch higher and Asian shares having risen earlier in the day.

But then as has been written ad nauseam, Europe is more exposed than the U.S. to the situation in the Gulf, and the latest from there was Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps threatening to close "all other export corridors that benefit the U.S. and its allies", after Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. reimposed a naval blockade of Iranian ports.