STOXX 600 touches 1-week high; China stimulus, earnings eyed
For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock markets, click LIVE/ or type LIVE/ in a news window.
Investors await further details on China's stimulus
Little reaction in French stocks after budget
Stellantis drops as CEO Tavares to retire
Moody's cuts Volkswagen's outlook to 'negative'
Updated at 1543 GMT
By Paolo Laudani, Sruthi Shankar and Johann M Cherian
Oct 11 (Reuters) -European stocks reversed early losses and ended Friday at more than a one-week high as investors shifted their focus to updates on China's stimulus plans, corporate earnings and an interest rate decision by the European Central Bank.
The continent-wide STOXX 600 index .STOXX ended up 0.5%, and was on track for weekly gains of 0.6%.
Markets closed a volatile week that saw Shanghai markets drop on uncertainty around policy support, oil prices spike on Middle East tensions and U.S. data raise doubts about sustained cooling of inflation.
Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE edged up 0.2%, while Germany's DAX .GDAXI and Spain's IBEX .IBEX closed up 0.7% and 0.5% respectively.
"We're now in that limbo phase where economies are not expecting to plunge into recession, rates are still high, there's no clear path on interest rate cuts and earnings have been resilient, but again the expectations were pretty low," said Daniela Sabin Hathorn, senior market analyst at Capital.com.
France's blue-chip CAC 40 .FCHI reversed early losses and ended higher after the government delivered its 2025 budget with plans for 60 billion euros ($65.5 billion) worth of spending cuts and tax hikes on the wealthy and big companies.
Ratings agency Fitch is scheduled to update its view on France's debt later in the day.
"These effects are going to have an impact, but as always, we tend to see that the actual application tends to be a bit more uneven than expected," Hathorn said.
Overall, there was a sense of caution as investors awaited China finance ministry's press conference on Saturday, with expectations of stimulus announcements running high.
European markets closed lower on Thursday after data showed U.S. inflation rose slightly more than expected in September, firming bets for a rate reduction of 25 bps.
The European Central Bank will meet on Oct. 17, and a rate cut is almost fully priced in, with a December move also firmly expected.
Among single stocks, Chrysler parent Stellantis STLAM.MI fell 2.8% as the company confirmed that CEO Carlos Tavares would retire at the end of his contract in early 2026.
Sainsbury's SBRY.L dropped 5.9% after the Qatar Investment Authority, the biggest shareholder in the British supermarket group, sold shares worth 306 million pounds ($399.88 million).
Volkswagen VOWG_p.DE lost 0.7% after reporting a decline in third-quarter global deliveries, following which Moody's cut its outlook on the carmaker to "negative" from "stable".
Valmet VALMT.HE slid 7.7% to the bottom of the STOXX index after lowering its full year expectations.
Attention will squarely be on earnings reports from ASML ASML.AS, Nordea Bank NDAFI.HE, Nokia NOKIA.HE, Sartorius SATG.DE, STDM.PA and Volvo VOLVb.ST among others in the following week.
($1 = 0.7652 pounds)
Reporting by Paolo Laudani in Gdansk, Sruthi Shankar and Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Ros Russell
Related Assets
Latest News
Disclaimer: The XM Group entities provide execution-only service and access to our Online Trading Facility, permitting a person to view and/or use the content available on or via the website, is not intended to change or expand on this, nor does it change or expand on this. Such access and use are always subject to: (i) Terms and Conditions; (ii) Risk Warnings; and (iii) Full Disclaimer. Such content is therefore provided as no more than general information. Particularly, please be aware that the contents of our Online Trading Facility are neither a solicitation, nor an offer to enter any transactions on the financial markets. Trading on any financial market involves a significant level of risk to your capital.
All material published on our Online Trading Facility is intended for educational/informational purposes only, and does not contain – nor should it be considered as containing – financial, investment tax or trading advice and recommendations; or a record of our trading prices; or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instruments; or unsolicited financial promotions to you.
Any third-party content, as well as content prepared by XM, such as: opinions, news, research, analyses, prices and other information or links to third-party sites contained on this website are provided on an “as-is” basis, as general market commentary, and do not constitute investment advice. To the extent that any content is construed as investment research, you must note and accept that the content was not intended to and has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such, it would be considered as marketing communication under the relevant laws and regulations. Please ensure that you have read and understood our Notification on Non-Independent Investment. Research and Risk Warning concerning the foregoing information, which can be accessed here.
