European Shares Climb On Fed Rate Cut Hopes

(RTTNews) - European stocks hovered near record levels on Thursday, with healthcare and chip-related stocks leading the surge.

Investors believe that a U.S. federal government shutdown would be brief and possibly have a negligible macroeconomic impact.

Meanwhile, a weak private-sector payrolls report showing a surprising decline of 32,000 private sector jobs in September raised expectations on further Federal Reserve monetary easing.

Concerns over the Fed's independence also eased somewhat after the Supreme Court said it would decide if President Donald Trump can remove Lisa Cook from the U.S. central bank.

The pan European Stoxx 600 rose 0.6 percent to 568.22 after rallying 1.2 percent on Wednesday.

The German DAX jumped a little over 1 percent and France's CAC 40 added 1.1 percent while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was little changed, giving up early gains.

U.K. financial services activity steadied last month after the sharpest fall since the pandemic, according to the CBI financial services survey.

ASML soared 4.4 percent and ASM International jumped 5.8 percent after Korea's Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix signed an initial supply pact with OpenAI's Stargate project.

Healthcare stocks extended gains from the previous session, with Sartorius climbing more than 4 percent after Pfizer struck a deal with the U.S. government on MFN pricing.

Worldline shares soared 13 percent in Paris. The global payment services provider has entered into a strategic partnership with YeePay, a Chinese payment provider in the airline and travel sector.

German chemicals maker BASF rallied 2 percent after confirming its 2028 financial targets.

British electricity and gas utility National Grid fell about 1 percent after reporting first-half fiscal 2026 trading in line with expectations.

Supermarket group Tesco surged 4 percent after raising its full-year profit forecast.