(Bloomberg) — European shares and US stock futures gained on a slew of strong company reports as traders awaited earnings from Apple Inc. and a likely interest-rate cut from the European Central Bank.
Europe’s Stoxx 600 Index hit a fresh record high, with Spanish banks BBVA and CaixaBank rallying after results and UK wealth manager St. James’s Place reporting strong client flows. Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.5% and contracts on the S&P 500 added 0.4%. International Business Machines Corp. jumped in premarket trading on a strong sales outlook and Apple is expected to post record results later today.
The yield on 10-year US Treasuries was down two basis points after the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged yesterday, adopting a “wait and see” approach with inflation still above 2% target.
Now attention turns to the European Central Bank, which is expected to cut rates by a quarter-point later Thursday to revive the sluggish eurozone economy. European government bonds gained after gross domestic product figures came in weaker than expected for Germany and France.
“The divergence trade is alive and well with a widening gap between European and US growth expectations that has translated into a much more dovish outlook for the ECB relative to the Fed,” said Daniel Murray, Zurich-based chief executive officer of EFG Asset Management.
READ: ECB Cut All But Certain With Price Goal in View: Decision Guide
The growing competition in artificial intelligence has defined global markets this week, with Chinese startup DeepSeek claiming to have made significant progress on its cheaper AI model. That put a question mark over the spending and investment plans of Silicon Valley firms, sparking a market rout at the start of the week.
Microsoft Corp. shares were down 3.9% in premarket trading after it said cloud revenue growth missed estimates on Wednesday. Tesla Inc. advanced 2.3% after predicting vehicle sales will rise this year after a challenging 2024. Meta Platforms Inc. was also up more than 2% in early trading after delivering a beat in results yesterday.
In currencies, the yen gained as much as 0.6% against the dollar as fast money traders lined up bets on the currency, according to an Asia-based FX trader.
Key events this week:
- Eurozone ECB rate decision, consumer confidence, unemployment, GDP, Thursday
- US GDP, jobless claims, Thursday
- Apple, Deutsche Bank earnings, Thursday
- US personal income & spending, PCE inflation, employment cost index, Friday
Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
- The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.5% as of 10:43 a.m. London time
- S&P 500 futures rose 0.4%
- Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.5%
- Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4%
- The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.2%
- The MSCI Emerging Markets Index was little changed
Currencies
- The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.1%
- The euro fell 0.1% to $1.0410
- The Japanese yen rose 0.5% to 154.42 per dollar
- The offshore yuan was little changed at 7.2672 per dollar
- The British pound was little changed at $1.2443
Cryptocurrencies
- Bitcoin rose 1.4% to $105,225.34
- Ether rose 2.3% to $3,211.79
Bonds
- The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined two basis points to 4.50%
- Germany’s 10-year yield declined six basis points to 2.52%
- Britain’s 10-year yield declined five basis points to 4.57%
Commodities
- Brent crude fell 0.3% to $76.36 a barrel
- Spot gold rose 0.7% to $2,778.85 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Matthew Burgess, Winnie Hsu, Richard Henderson and Divya Patil.
©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
