With earnings reports from BMW and Adidas, Brand Germany came into focus on Wednesday (November 6).

Shareholders weren't too excited by what they saw.

For BMW, higher margin SUV sales helped drive a 33% profit rise in Q3 - earnings rose to 2.3 billion euros from 1.7 billion a year earlier.

But by mid-morning, the carmaker's shares were only just edging into the black.

Adidas was over two per cent in the red

Despite the sportswear maker's confidence that sales will accelerate rapidly in Q4 ...

After a stronger-than-expected performance in Q3

Dialog Semiconductor, meanwhile, slumped over 7 per cent - putting the German chipmaker on course to its worst day in 10 months - on disappointing Q4 guidance.

German industrial orders data also failed to lift the DAX beyond Tuesday's (November 5) four-year high.

A far-better-than-expected rise in September was offset by services numbers showing that sector barely grew in October.

Amid the share market gainers: bank stocks, helped by SocGen.

Despite a drop of over a third in quarterly profits, shares in the French lender rose over four per cent on news it's set aside most of the cash it needs to deliver a dividend payout.

Retail stocks were in favour - after better-than-expected earnings from Marks and Spencer and Dutch supermarket operator Ahold Delhaize.

Among the other losers: Norwegian Air - down nearly 10 per cent in early trade

After the struggling carrier conducted another cash call ...

In the hope it can avoid the kind of collapse suffered by so many sector peers.