On Tuesday, European stocks experienced a slight increase as mixed regional data was processed by investors. They are also waiting for potential direction from key Federal Reserve and Bank of England meetings anticipated this week.
The pan-European STOXX 600 saw a 0.2% increase up to 405.63, matching the previous session's growth. The German DAX index similarly grew by 0.2%, while UK and French indexes, FTSE 100 and CAC 40 respectively, observed respective increases of 0.4% and 0.5%.
Spain's BBVA bank experienced a significant rise of 6.2% following a solid fourth quarter performance and the announcement of a €781 million ($846.1 million) share buyback. Advertising agency, WPP also saw upward movement after upgrading its medium-term financial targets, while infrastructure product group, Hill & Smith, noted a growth as a new chief operating officer was appointed.
The biopharmaceutical company, MorphoSy, renowned for its product, Monjuvi, projected its sales to in the range of $80 million to $95 million in 2024, aligning with its previous guidelines.
Conversely, German food delivery service, Delivery Hero, experienced a 5.3% share decrease as the company announced it would sell its stake in Deliveroo due to diminishing customer demand. Container shipping company, Hapag-Lloyd, saw a significant decrease in its preliminary earnings for the full year. This was mainly attributed to reduced freight rates, a result of the normalization of global supply chains. Zurich Insurance also fell in performance after it was announced that Viridium Group would not proceed in purchasing its legacy life insurance policy business in Germany.
Economic data has unveiled that German GDP fell by 0.3% in the fourth quarter, following stagnation in the preceding two quarters, exactly as predicted. Meanwhile, France just about managed to avoid entering a recession towards the end of the year. Their GDP showed no growth in the fourth quarter, which matched the third quarter performance.
Further reports from France indicated a softening in household consumption growth in December, due primarily to decreased food consumption. On the other hand, the UK saw a drop in shop price inflation to 2.9% in January, down from 4.3% in the previous month. This marks the seventh consecutive monthly decline, and the lowest rate since May 2022.
The economy of the Eurozone area remained static in the fourth quarter, thus avoiding a technical recession. This was due to encouraging growth achieved primarily by Spain and Italy in the southern European economies.
The preliminary estimate from Eurostat reveals that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) remained unchanged after falling 0.1% in the third quarter. Economists had predicted another 0.1% fall in the fourth quarter, which would have put the currency bloc into a technical recession.
