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Stocks inched slightly lower Thursday as a decline in crude oil prices weighed on energy companies.

The Stoxx Europe 600 inched down 0.2 percent following declines in Asia. Gains in the auto and food and beverage sectors helped offset losses in energy and mining shares.

Brent crude oil was down 0.4% at $43.88 a barrel amid signs of continued growth in U.S. crude stocks and record output from Saudi Arabia, marking a decline of over 5% in the oil price in the last month.

Weaker commodity prices weighed on stocks in Asia. The Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.5%, while Australia's S&P ASX 200 shed 0.6%. Markets in Japan were closed for a holiday.

Elsewhere, New Zealand's central bank lowered its main interest rate to a record-low 2% on Thursday and signaled further cuts were likely, but the New Zealand dollar spiked as markets had anticipated a more dramatic cut.

The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note inched up slightly to 1.511% following two sessions of declines, while 10-year U.K. government debt last yielded 0.542% after some short-dated gilts briefly returned to negative territory Thursday morning. Yields move inversely to prices.

Jenny W. Hsu and Kate Geenty contributed to this article.

Write to Riva Gold at riva.gold@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 11, 2016 04:35 ET (08:35 GMT)

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