European stocks advanced on Thursday as investors took largely upbeat corporate earnings to heart amid easing political tensions after French prime minister Sébastien Lecornu survived a confidence vote. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index rose 0.45 per cent.
Wall Street stocks advanced and gold prices surged ever upward on Thursday as solid corporate earnings helped investors look past simmering trade tensions between the United States and China.
All three major US stock indexes followed their European counterparts to modest gains, while safe-haven seekers continued to send gold to fresh highs
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Shares in mining company Kenmare Resources traded flat after a wobble in the previous session on back of statements production of ilmenite – it’s most important mineral – will be towards the lower end of guidance this year.
Bank of Ireland closed marginally down by 0.54 per cent.
Food group Glanbia and budget airline Ryanair rose upon the positive tide, closing the session up 1.9 per cent and 1.4 per cent respectively.
EUROPE
In European equities on Thursday, the CAC 40 in Paris closed up 1.4 per cent, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt ended up 0.4 per cent.
In France, prime minister Sébastien Lecornu weathered two confidence motions, just days after appointing his new government and making a key political concession to stay in power.
The votes followed Mr Lecornu’s decision Tuesday to back suspending a divisive 2023 pension reform, in a bid to keep his cabinet afloat long enough to pass a much-needed austerity budget by year’s end.
In Zurich, Nestle stormed 9.3 per cent higher after announcing plans to cut around 16,000 jobs globally over the next two years, as new chief executive officer Philipp Navratil steps up restructuring to revive growth and profitability at the Swiss food conglomerate.
The move forms part of an expanded cost-savings programme.
Nestle also reported third quarter organic growth of 4.3 per cent, well ahead of 3.7 per cent expected by analysts. Real internal growth improved to 1.5 per cent, ahead of 0.3 per cent consensus, recovering from negative trends earlier in the year.
LONDON
Blue chips in London nudged higher on Thursday despite sluggish economic growth in August and a 10 per cent drop for Premier Inn owner Whitbread.
The FTSE 100 index was little changed at 9,436.09.
The UK economy achieved only minor growth in August, numbers from the Office for National Statistics showed, while the reading for July was downwardly revised.
Earlier this week, UK chancellor Rachel Reeves acknowledged she was looking at potential tax rises and spending cuts to fill a black hole in her budget.
On the FTSE 100, Whitbread tumbled 10 per cent as lower earnings, higher debt, and growing economic uncertainty in the UK all weighed, despite a pickup in trading at Premier Inn.
Whitbread said pretax profit fell 7.1 per cent to £287 million in the half-year that ended August 28 from £309 million a year earlier.
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, called Whitbread’s results “another weak performance”, saying that earnings in reverse and net debt on the rise is the “kind of news that makes investors suffer from insomnia”.
NEW YORK
Wall Street’s main indexes were mixed on Thursday, as financial companies dragged while chip stocks extended their rally following a strong quarterly update from TSMC that reinforced investor optimism around AI.
Shares of some major US chipmakers also advanced, building on gains from Wednesday when ASML’s solid quarterly results and a $40 billion (€34 billion) data centre deal by BlackRock and a Nvidia-backed group fuelled optimism around AI.
Nvidia rose 1 per cent, Micron Technology added 5.6 per cent and Broadcom gained 1.1 per cent.
Salesforce rose 4.1 per cent as it forecast revenue of more than $60 billion for 2030, above Wall Street estimates.
“The Nasdaq is having a pretty good day, being driven higher by the semiconductors and the software side of things,” said Zachary Hill, head of portfolio management at Horizon Investments in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Among other moves, Hewlett Packard Enterprise slumped 10.5 per cent after it forecast annual profit and revenue below Wall Street expectations.
JB Hunt shares jumped 19.3 per cent after a higher third-quarter profit. – Additional reporting by Reuters
