The European stock markets closed mostly lower in Wednesday trading as investors monitored higher bond yields, oil price and ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

The Stoxx Europe lost 1.1%, Germany's DAX dropped 1.5%, the FTSE 100 fell 0.8%, France's CAC declined 1.2%, while the Swiss Market Index edged 0.1% higher.

In corporate news, HSBC is considering sweeping job cuts in its UK wealth management business as part of a drive toward AI-powered services, the Financial Times reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the plans.

The lender is planning to axe around half of the business's management and specialist roles and reduce its number of financial advisers by roughly 70%, the report said.

"HSBC UK is a long-established, leading UK wealth manager and premium banking provider. We're continuing to evolve to deliver more digitally-enabled products and journeys, to support our best-in-class wealth service and meet the changing needs of our customers," a spokesperson for HSBC told MT Newswires in an emailed response.

Shares of the British lender fell 4.1% in London.

Shell raised its Q3 integrated gas production outlook to 740,000 to 780,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from its prior projection of 570,000 to 630,000 boe/d, the company said Wednesday.

The oil giant narrowed its Q3 upstream production guidance to 1.74 million to 1.84 boe/d, compared with 1.68 million to 1.88 million boe/d previously. Shell also expects its indicative refining margin for the quarter to rise to $42 per barrel from $24 in Q2.

Shares of Shell edged 0.1% lower in London.

RWE Chief Executive Markus Krebber said any involvement by the German utility in Uniper would be limited after RWE and KKR (KKR) submitted a joint non-binding bid for the state-owned energy company, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

RWE is not targeting a takeover, given its significant position in Germany's energy market, Krebber said in an interview with Bloomberg.

RWE declined to comment when contacted by MT Newswires.

Shares of RWE dropped 1.3% in Frankfurt.

Aker BP faces 9.8% and 23% budget increases for its Yggdrasil and Valhall-Fenris offshore oil and gas developments in Norway, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing government fiscal data.

Projections for Yggdrasil rose to 195 billion Norwegian crowns ($20.40 billion) from 177.6 billion crowns a year ago, while Valhall-Fenris is now anticipated to cost 93.4 billion crowns, up from 75.9 billion crowns, the news outlet quoted the report as saying.

The higher expenditures stem from revised offshore construction estimates, supplementary drilling wells, expanded project scopes, and extra resources deployed to maintain the production launch target for 2027, the report said.

Aker BP did not immediately respond to MT Newswires' request for comment.

Shares of BP edged 0.1% higher in London

Equinor has updated the cost estimate for the Snohvit Future project in Norway to 26.5 billion Norwegian kroner ($2.78 billion) in 2026 value, up from just over 20 billion kroner in 2025 value, the company said Wednesday.

Equinor cited operational issues at the Hammerfest LNG plant, adverse weather and challenging rock conditions in the power cable tunnel as factors affecting project costs and progress.

TotalEnergies is a partner in the project.

Shares of Equinor decreased 1.6% in Oslo, while shares of TotalEnergies were off 0.7% in Paris.

BHP said Wednesday it has agreed to sell the Kambalda Nickel Concentrator and related mining tenements and mineral rights to Gold Fields.

The company said Gold Fields will assess options for the concentrator's long-term use and plans to offer jobs to workers supporting the asset.

BHP will continue to operate the facility safely until the deal closes. The company expects to complete the sale next year.

Shares of the mining company fell 1.6% in London.

IBM launched IBM Ready for SAP Solutions, a joint initiative with SAP (SAP), to help midsize and fast-growing companies accelerate cloud ERP modernization, unify enterprise data and build AI-ready digital infrastructure, the company said Wednesday.

The company said Volumetric Building Companies and Second Nature Brands are using the solution. Volumetric reduced operational cycle times by 50% across purchasing, manufacturing and inventory following a three-month SAP Cloud ERP transformation, it said.

Second Nature Brands used the platform to integrate its acquired Voortman Bakery business into a common enterprise system, it added.

Shares of SAP declined 0.5% in Frankfurt.