Business

US shares advance as markets eye Apple results

Iseq index outperforms its peers, adding 1.5% after positive updates from Smurfit Kappa and Glenveagh Homes

The world’s biggest technology companies drove a rebound in US stocks ahead of Apple’s earnings reports after markets close. Photograph: Getty

Ian Curran
Thu May 2 2024 - 17:59

US shares advanced on Thursday, halting a two-day slide in equities, as the world’s biggest tech companies led gains.

Led by energy stocks, European shares slipped following a surprise first-quarter loss at the world’s largest wind turbine-maker.

DUBLIN

The Iseq index outperformed its European peers on Thursday, advancing 1.5 per cent on foot of big moves by Smurfit Kappa and Glenveagh Homes after both groups reported first-quarter results.

Smurfit Kappa led gains on the index, adding 5.9 per cent to finish the session at €43.15 per share after issuing a trading update indicating growth in European cardboard box volumes of 3 per cent in the first three months of the year and 2 per cent in the Americas. It marks a turnaround from a difficult market in 2023, when group volumes declined by 3.5 per cent, even if demand had started to grow again in the fourth quarter.

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Shares in home builder Glenveagh, meanwhile, rose by almost 2.4 per cent to more than €1.30 per share. In an update in advance of its annual general meeting, the company said it sold, signed, or reserved more than 1,440 suburban units so far in 2024, up from 1,106 units at the end of February 2024, as the underlying demand continued to support the market.

Bank of Ireland continued to advance, adding 2.8 per cent to €10.32 after uplifting its profit guidance earlier this year. AIB moved 1.8 per cent to €4.95 per share higher, while PTSB gained 1.8 per cent to close at a session high of €1.54.

LONDON

Britain’s blue-chip share index, the FTSE 100, rose by 0.7 per cent on Thursday as shares of Shell and Standard Chartered jumped after strong results, while investors also took comfort from the Federal Reserve dismissing the possibility of more interest rate hikes. The mid-cap FTSE 250, meanwhile, added 0.5 per cent.

Standard Chartered jumped 8.7 per cent to a six-month high and led gains on the blue-chip index after the emerging markets-focused lender posted a 5.5 per cent rise in first-quarter pretax profit that beat estimates. Insurer Prudential also added 3.4 per cent.

Shell climbed 1.6 per cent after the energy giant reported a much better than expected first-quarter profit of $7.7 billion (€7.2bn) on the back of strong oil trading and higher refining margins. Its big oil rival BP, meanwhile, advanced 1.3 per cent.

EUROPE

European shares struggled to find direction as the blue-chip Stoxx 50 index slipped by 0.6 per cent, while the pan-European Stoxx 600 fell by 0.3 per cent.

Energy stocks dropped 1 per cent to a near one-month low. The world’s largest wind turbine maker Vestas lost more than 4 per cent after a surprise first-quarter loss, while France’s Technip Energies shed 2.8 per cent after first-quarter results.

Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk lost 2.7 per cent despite a first-quarter outlook hike, with analysts pointing to slower underlying growth and weakness in obesity drug sales.

Moving in the opposite direction Dutch lender ING Groep jumped 6.4 per cent after a €2.5 billion share buyback and a strong first-quarter performance.

Bayer climbed 3 per cent after its Monsanto unit won an appeal over a $185 million verdict related to now-banned chemicals called polychlorinated biphenyls.

NEW YORK

The world’s biggest technology companies drove a rebound in US stocks in advance of Apple’s earnings report after markets close, with Wall Street also gearing up for a closely watched US jobs report on Friday.

By closing bell in Dublin the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were both ahead by around 0.4 per cent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite had advanced by almost 1 per cent, halting a two-day drop in equities.

Nvidia led gains in chipmakers and Apple climbed 1.5 per cent. Wall Street expects the iPhone-maker to announce a stock buyback, following the steps of fellow big techs Alphabet and Meta Platforms. Any news related to artificial intelligence features could provide additional excitement.

Qualcomm, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, surged on an upbeat forecast. eBay slumped on a disappointing outlook. – Additional reporting: Reuters, Bloomberg

Ian Curran

Ian Curran

Ian Curran is a Business reporter with The Irish Times

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