This is CNBC’s live blog covering European markets.
European markets closed at record highs Thursday as investors reacted to the European Central Bank’s fifth consecutive interest rate cut.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 provisionally closed 0.9% higher at 539.06 points, notching a new record close as sentiment continued to recover from a global technology sell-off on Monday.
The ECB kicked off its first meeting of 2025 with a 25-basis-point interest rate cut Thursday. The move brought the central bank’s key overnight deposit facility rate to 2.75%, marking its fifth cut since the bank began easing monetary policy last June.
Market watchers expect further easing this year despite euro zone inflation ticking upwards over the past few months; activity in the single currency area’s manufacturing and services sectors remains broadly subdued and consumer confidence is below its long-term average, European Commission data shows.
Against this backdrop, investors are assessing the latest economic data from France and Germany, which both contracted in the fourth quarter, while the euro zone stagnated.
German lender Deutsche Bank kicked off a flurry of earnings, reporting a sharper-than-expected fall in fourth-quarter profit, driving its shares down 3%.
Oil giant Shell meanwhile saw shares gain almost 3% after posting a significant drop in annual profit following a year of lower crude prices. The company announced a 4% increase in dividend per share and launched another share buyback program of $3.5 billion.
Top posts
- Deutsche Bank CFO says lender’s risk profile has ‘dramatically changed’ | view post
- Euro zone economy flatlines in fourth quarter | view post
- German economy shrinks by more than expected | view post
Swedish fashion giant H&M recorded a slightly estimate beat on operating profit, but its sales missed forecasts for the final three months of the year. Shares were nearly 4% lower.
Nokia, ABB, Roche, BT Group, Sage Group, Wizz Air, Electrolux, BBVA, Caixabank, Nordea and Sanofi also reported Thursday.
Overnight in the Asia-Pacific region, Australian and Japanese stocks extended gains from the previous session. Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and China markets are closed for Lunar New Year holidays.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures rose as Wall Street digested recent quarterly results from several megacap tech companies, and the Federal Reserve’s decision to hold steady on rates.
S&P 500 rises slightly after latest earnings deluge
Traders work at the New York Stock Exchange on Jan. 29, 2025.
U.S. stocks opened higher on Thursday as investors reacted to earnings from technology heavyweights Microsoft, Tesla and Meta.
The S&P 500 added 0.3%, as did the Nasdaq Composite. The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded fractionally higher.
Shares of Meta and Tesla gained 2% and 5%, respectively, while Microsoft shares dipped more than 5% after the companies reported earnings.
— Ryan Browne
ECB cuts interest rates by 25 basis points
Luis de Guindos, vice president of the European Central Bank (ECB), left, and Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), at a rates decision news conference in Frankfurt, Germany, on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024.
The European Central Bank on Thursday said it was trimming interest rates by a further 25 basis points.
This is the fifth rate reduction since the ECB began easing monetary policy in June of 2024. This brings the ECB’s deposit facility, its key rate, to 2.75%.
— Sophie Kiderlin
UK 30-year gilt yield sinks after Reeves’ growth plan
Bank of England in the City of London on 3rd December 2024 in London, United Kingdom.
U.K. long-dated gilt yields fell to their lowest level in four weeks, a day after Finance Minister Rachel Reeves laid out plans to boost the country’s sluggish economy.
The yield on the 30-year gilt sank seven basis points to 5.107%, its lowest point since Jan. 2.
It comes after Reeves on Wednesday said that a third runway at London’s Heathrow Airport was “badly needed,” adding it would boost investment, support economic expansion and potentially create over 100,000 jobs.
Borrowing costs jumped to their highest levels in decades earlier this month before cooling nearly as fast.
Traders have been wary about the implications of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s tariff plan, which they fear could heat up inflation. The U.K. is also facing its own spate of problems, with economic growth unexpectedly contracting in October and inflation hovering above the Bank of England’s 2% target.
The Bank of England will hold its latest monetary policy meeting next Thursday.
– Ryan Browne
Shell CEO says 2025 will be a year of potential uncertainties and volatility
Shell CEO Wael Sawan told CNBC that 2024 was a “remarkably resilient year” despite a number of headwinds, adding that he expects potential uncertainties and volatility in 2025.
Euro zone economy flatlines in fourth quarter, missing expectations for slight expansion
The euro zone economy saw zero growth in the fourth quarter, flash figures published by the European Union’s statistics agency Eurostat showed Thursday.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected growth of 0.1% over the period, following a larger-than-expected 0.4% expansion in the third quarter.
— Holly Ellyatt
Deutsche Bank CFO says lender’s risk profile has ‘dramatically changed’
Deutsche Bank CFO James von Moltke told CNBC on Thursday that the lender saw “a very high level of non-operating costs in 2024,” in an interview discussing its fourth quarter results.
“We are not happy with one-off expenses or surprises and most of these things have really been … issues arising from the past, sometimes the distant past, the PostBank takeover litigation matter in 2024 is a good example. Which, on a net basis, represents about 900 million [euros] of costs in ’24,” von Moltke told Annette Weisbach.
“So in a sense, the only good news thing you can say about it: it’s behind us. And importantly, therefore, the risk profile of the company is dramatically changed,” he added
— Jenni Reid, Ruxandra Iordache
German economy shrinks by more than expected in fourth quarter
Germany’s economy contracted by 0.2% in the fourth quarter, preliminary data from German statistics agency Destatis showed Thursday, compared with a 0.1% shrink expected by a Reuters poll.
The figure is adjusted for price, calendar and seasonal variations. In the previous quarter Germany’s economy had expanded by 0.1%.
Household and government consumption expenditures increased, but exports were “significantly lower” than in the previous quarter, Destatis said.
“After a year marked by economic and structural challenges, the German economy thus ended 2024 in negative territory,” it added.
— Sophie Kiderlin
Europe stocks open higher
European stock markets opened broadly higher Thursday despite big-name earnings disappointing, with the Stoxx 600 index up 0.4% at 8:26 a.m. in London.
Industrials and energy led sector gains, up 0.73% and 0.36%, respectively.
Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 were both around 0.3% higher, while the U.K.’s FTSE 100 rose 0.12%.
— Jenni Reid
France’s economy shrank in the fourth quarter
People walking in the streets of Montmartre, Paris, France, on April 23, 2024.
France’s economy shrank slightly in the fourth quarter, flash data showed Thursday, highlighting the urgent need for warring French lawmakers to overcome their differences and agree on a 2025 budget.
The economy recorded a 0.1% contraction in the fourth quarter on the previous three months, the country’s statistics agency INSEE revealed Thursday, down from growth of 0.4% in the third quarter of 2024. Economists polled by Reuters had expected growth to be flat.
France’s beleaguered economy was given a boost by the Olympic Games in Paris last summer, but political upheaval has ensued since then, leaving fiscal challenges — namely, France’s big budget deficit and growing debt pile — unresolved.
Read more on the story here: France’s shrinking economy betrays urgent need to overcome budget wrangles
— Holly Ellyatt
Deutsche Bank posts steeper-than-expected Q4 profit fall
Germany’s largest lender Deutsche Bank on Thursday reported weaker-than-expected profit that fell sharply in the last three months of 2024, as legal provisions weighed on the bottom line.
Net profit attributable to shareholders hit 106 million euros ($110.4 million) in the fourth quarter, compared with the 282.39 million euros forecast in a LSEG poll of analysts. The result marked a significant fall from the 1.461 billion euros achieved in the third quarter.
Revenue reached 7.224 million euros in the fourth quarter, versus a LSEG analyst poll of 7.125 billion euros — but was eroded by litigation costs over the period to the tune of 594 million euros.
— Ruxandra Iordache
European markets: Here are the opening calls
European markets are expected to open higher Thursday with investors keeping a close eye on the latest monetary policy decision from the European Central Bank.
The U.K.’s FTSE 100 index is expected to open 2 points lower at 8,555, Germany’s DAX up 24 points at 21,649, France’s CAC up 25 points at 7,892 and Italy’s FTSE MIB up 72 points at 36,627, according to data from IG.
Close market attention will also be on the latest growth data from France, Germany and the euro zone on Thursday, as well euro zone unemployment, economic sentiment and consumer confidence figures.
Earnings come from Nokia, ABB, Roche, Deutsche Bank, H&M, Shell, BT Group, Sage Group, Wizz Air, Electrolux, BBVA, Caixabank, Nordea and Sanofi.
— Holly Ellyatt
