Europe close: Early gains for stocks stick as US dollar gains
Airbus Group N.V.
€159.29
13:29 25/04/24
Early strong gains in European stockmarkets stuck this time, amid US tax reform progress that boosted the dollar's value and after news broke of a possible breakthrough in Brexit talks.
Apple Inc.
$169.02
13:09 24/04/24
CAC 40
8,023.67
13:30 25/04/24
Dialog Semiconductor Plc
€0.00
07:46 20/03/24
DJ EURO STOXX 50
4,989.88
00:00 25/04/24
Dow Jones I.A.
38,460.92
04:30 15/10/20
Nasdaq 100
17,526.80
12:15 24/04/24
At the closing bell, the Stoxx 600 benchmark was up 3.50 points or 0.91% at 387.47, with Germany's DAX leaping 197.06 points higher to 13,058.55 and France's CAC adding 72.40 points or 1.36% to reach 5,389.29.
Exporters were on the front foot as the euro dropped 0.38% against the dollar to 1.1846, continuing a retreat from its recent two- month high, and down 0.3% versus the pound to 0.8803.
Weakness against Sterling came despite not entirely unexpected news that Brexit talks had hit a snag in the form of the Irish border issue.
In the background, the US Senate's 51-49 vote on Saturday paving the way for the first major overhaul of the US tax system since the Reagan administration was in focus.
While the bill will still have to be aligned with the lower house's equivalent bill, this marks a key legislative victory for President Donald Trump, and allowed markets to ignore the news from the end of last week that Trump’s former security advisor, Michael Flynn, had pleaded guilty about lying to the FBI.
Back in Europe, ELSTAT reported that Greece's gross domestic product expanded at a 0.3% quarter-on-quarter pace over the three months to September (consensus: 0.4%), amid upwards revisions to estimates for prior quarters.
Following revisions, Greek authorities pegged second quarter GDP growth at 0.8%, versus a previous estimate of 0.5%.
Meanwhile, Eurostat reported a dip in the year-on-year rate of euro area factory gate inflation for October from 2.8% to 2.5% (consensus: 2.6%).
On the corporate front, shares in Fressenius, Commerzbank, Deutsche Post, ThyssenKrupp and BMW all benefited from the slide in the euro.
Commerzbank was lifted despite its London subsidiary getting a telling off by the UK financial regulator for not vetting its customers thoroughly enough.
German paper Handelsblatt reported that Commerzbank had stopped conducting further business with clients whose vetting had been criticized by after the Financial Conduct Authority said its financial crime controls were insufficient.
Shares in Dialog Semiconductor were in the red again after the German-listed, UK-based chip maker said it recognised that Apple, its largest client by far, could potentially design its own power management integrated circuits "in the next few years".
France's Casino Guichard-Perrachon, which last week signed a key deal with the UK's Ocado, was up 0.5% as it announced the extension of its partnership with Spain's Distribuidora Internacional de Alimentacion to form a new joint venture that will manage orders, payment and the supply of private-label products for both Casino and DIA, as well as generating potential value chain innovations.
In another sector, Airbus's head of jet manufacturing, Fabrice Bregier, told Les Echos the manufacturer was still expecting to deliver over 700 aircraft in 2017, a production record, despite delays in engine deliveries from suppliers.