European Stocks Close Higher As Trade Tensions Ease

(RTTNews) - European stocks closed higher on Friday as trade tensions eased after United States struck a deal with China to expedite rate earth shipments.

The deal marks a significant step towards resolving the ongoing trade war between the world's two largest economies.

Beijing said Washington would lift "restrictive measures" while Beijing would "review and approve" items under export controls.

Easing concers about Middle East tensions contributed as well to markets' positive move.

The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 0.89%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 gained 0.6%, Germany's DAX closed 0.79% up and France's CAC 40 jumped 1.4%. Switzerland's SMI ended 0.84% up.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Turkiye closed higher.

Poland edged up marginally, while Greece and Iceland ended weak.

In the UK market, JD Sports Fashion climbed more than 7.5%. Ashtead Group ended 5.55% up. Melrose Industries, Standard Chartered, IMI, Barclays, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Taylor Wimpey, Experian, IAG, Informa, Natwest Group and Rentokil Initial gained 1 to 3.6%.

Endeavour Mining and Fresnillo both ended lower by more than 4%. Babcock International, BAE Systems and Coca-Cola Europacific Partners ended down 1 to 1.7%.

In the German market, Porsche rallied more than 7.6%. Daimler Truck Holding climbed 6.1% and BMW gained about 5.3%. Mercedes-Benz, Continental, Volkswagen, Adidas, Heidelberg Materials, Siemens, Deutsche Post and Puma gained 3 to 5%.

Siemens Energy, Bayer, SAP, BASF, Vonovia, Deutsche Bank and Sartorius also closed with strong gains, while Rheinmetall ended down 4.4%.

In the French market, Schneider Electric moved up 6.5%. Kering gained about 5.6%, while Stellantis and Legrand gained 4.7% and 4.3%, respectively.

Saint Gobain, Societe Generale, Renault, LVMH, Capgemini, Publicis Groupe, Michelin, BNP Paribas, Teleperformance and Dassault Systemes also ended with impressive gains.

Thales and Accor closed lower by 1.5% and 1.4%, respectively.

In economic news, France's inflation accelerated more than expected in June largely due to higher services costs but the overall rate remained below the 2% target, preliminary estimate from the statistical office INSEE showed.

Consumer prices increased 0.9% year-on-year in June, faster than the 0.7% rise in May. The rate was forecast to remain unchanged at 0.7%.

EU harmonized inflation stood at 0.8%, while it was expected to rise moderately to 0.7% from 0.6% in May. Final data is due on July 11.

In a separate communiqué, the INSEE said producer prices rose for the first time in 18 months in May. Producer prices rose 0.2% in May from a year ago, following a 0.7% fall in April.

Another data showed that consumer spending growth softened in May as the rebound in energy consumption was partially offset by the decline in food and engineered goods consumption.

Eurozone economic sentiment deteriorated unexpectedly in June, survey data from the European Commission showed.

The economic confidence index fell to 94.0 in June from 94.8 in May. The score was forecast to rise to 95.1.

The industrial confidence index posted -12.0 in June, down from -10.4 a month ago. The reading was seen at -9.9.

Likewise, the consumer confidence indicator dropped to -15.3, in line with the flash estimate, from -15.1 in May.