By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - European stock markets traded in a mixed fashion Thursday, boosted by generally strong corporate earnings but amid caution following the sharp rise in U.S. inflation.
At 4:15 AM ET (0915 GMT), the DAX in Germany traded 0.1% lower, while the U.K.’s FTSE 100 climbed 0.3% and the CAC 40 in France rose 0.2%.
The European quarterly earnings season continued in full flow Thursday, with most corporates releasing generally positive results.
Generali (MI:GASI) stock rose 1.5% after Italy's top insurer beat market expectations with its nine-month results and said it has about 1 billion euros left to deploy for M&A opportunities.
Siemens (DE:SIEGn) stock rose 1% after reporting better-than-expected sales and orders during its fourth quarter, with the German engineering giant overcoming ongoing supply chain bottlenecks.
Aviva (LON:AV) stock rose 0.9% after the British insurer said it was on track to return at least 4 billion pounds ($5.4 billion) to shareholders, while Delivery Hero (DE:DHER) stock rose 1.5% after the German online takeaway food company lifted its 2021 revenue outlook to the upper end of a previous forecast.
On the flip side, Burberry (LON:BRBY) stock slumped 7.9% after the British luxury brand said that sales in Europe remained under pressure from reduced tourist levels, even after announcing strong growth in mainland China, South Korea and the United States.
On Wednesday, U.S. consumer price index surged 6.2% on an annual basis last month, climbing at the fastest pace since 1990, boosting the case for faster Federal Reserve policy tightening.
The tone is more circumspect in Europe as the region’s central bank is seen as being way behind the Fed in terms of reining in its accommodative monetary policy stance. Only last week President Christine Lagarde stated that the European Central Bank is very unlikely to raise interest rates next year as inflation remains too low.
Elsewhere, U.K. gross domestic product grew by 1.3%, the weakest three-month growth since Britain was under lockdown in early 2021. The country’s economy remained 2.1% smaller than it was at the end of 2019, a bigger shortfall than in fellow Group of Seven countries Germany, Italy and France.
Crude prices edged higher Thursday, rebounding after the previous session’s losses on concerns the sharp rise in U.S. inflation, boosted by high energy costs, will prompt the Biden administration to release more strategic stockpiles.
Inventories of gasoline and distillates continued to fall, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday, while crude stockpiles rose just over 1 million barrels, after the government released 3.1 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
President Joe Biden said he asked the National Economic Council to work to reduce energy costs, which may result in further SPR releases.
By 4:15 AM ET, U.S. crude futures traded 0.3% higher at $81.56 a barrel, having dropped 3.3% on Wednesday, while the Brent contract gained 0.6% to $83.12, after fallen 2.5% in the previous session.
Additionally, gold futures rose 0.9% to $1,864.55/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% lower at 1.1465.