European Stocks Close On Firm Note

(RTTNews) - European stocks closed higher on Thursday, and the German market rose to a record high, while the U.K. and French markets climbed to multi-month and multi-week highs, respectively, as investors largely reacted positively to earnings and economic data, while looking ahead to upcoming French GDP and inflation reports and the personal income & spending data from the U.S.

Data showing a drop in Spanish inflation and a bigger than expected increase in Eurozone economic sentiment supported the markets.

Elsewhere, preliminary data showed inflation fell in six important German states in August, boosting bets on an ECB rate cut next month.

The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 0.76%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 gained 0.43%, Germany's DAX ended 0.69% up, and France's CAC 40 advanced 0.84%. Switzerland's SMI closed 0.56% up.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Turkiye closed notably higher.

Austria, Greece and Norway crept up marginally, while Portugal edged slightly lower.

In the UK market, Spirax Group and Whitbread gained 3.9% and 3.7%, respectively. Bunzl, Pershing Square Holdings, Convatec Group, Weir Group, EasyJet, Endeavour Mining, Antofagasta, BAE Systems, Halma, Relx, Intertek Group, Ashtead Group, Smiths Group, Natwest, Centrica, Fresnillo, B&M European Value Retail and Diploma gained 1.3 to 3%.

Londometric Property drifted down 3.45%. Segro and Unite Group both ended lower by about 1.9%. Land Securities Group, Reckitt Benckiser, Barrat Developments, National Grid, Smith (DS), Diageo, Glencore, Coca-Cola HBC and Vodafone Group ended lower by 1 to 1.4%.

In the German market, Adidas, Sartorius, SAP, RWE, Infineon, Beiersdorf, Porsche, BASF, Puma and HeidelbergCement gained 1 to 2%.

German food-delivery company Delivery Hero soared more than 12% after half-year earnings beat market views.

Vonovia ended down 1.7%. Hannover Rueck and E.ON also ended notably lower.

In the French market, Dassault Systemes rallied nearly 3% following promising remarks from French President Emmanuel Macron about finalizing a deal to sell 12 Rafale fighter jets to Serbia.

STMicroElectronics also ended nearly 3% up. Pernod Ricard, Accor, L'Oreal, LVMH, Hermes International, Legrand and Schneider Electric gained 1.3 to 2%.

Teleperformance dropped more than 5%. Eurofins Scientific ended down 1.7%, and Unibail Rodamco closed lower by about 1.05%.

On the economic front, eurozone economic sentiment strengthened to a 15-month high in August as the Olympic Games boosted sentiment in France, survey results from the European Commission revealed. The economic confidence index advanced to 96.6 in August from 96.0 in the previous month. This was the highest score since May 2023.

Germany's consumer price inflation reached the lowest since early 2021 on lower energy prices and favorable base effects, raising chances of a September interest rate cut by the European Central Bank. Consumer price inflation softened to 1.9% in August from 2.3% in July, flash data from Destatis showed.

A report from the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association said Europe car registrations growth eased notably in July largely due to the sharp fall in battery-electric car demand. The report said car sales grew only 0.2% on a yearly basis in July after a 4.3% gain in June.

UK car production declined in July due to model changeovers as well as temporary supply chain challenges, the Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders, or SMMT, said. Car output posted an annual decline of 14.4% in July.

In U.S. economic news, a Commerce Department report said the surge by gross domestic product in the second quarter was upwardly revised to 3% from the previously reported 2.8%. Economists had expected the pace of GDP growth to be unrevised.

With the upward revision, the pace of GDP growth in the second quarter showed an even faster acceleration compared to the 1.4% jump in the first quarter. The report also showed modest downward revisions to the pace of consumer price growth during the second quarter.

A separate report released by the Labor Department showed first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits edged slightly lower in the week ended August 24th.

The report said initial jobless claims slipped to 231,000, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week's revised level of 233,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to come in unchanged compared to the 232,000 originally reported for the previous week.