European Shares Look Headed For Positive Start Ahead Of Powell's Speech

RTTNews | 1070 dias atrás

(RTTNews) - European stocks look set to open higher on Friday after Wall Street's main indexes ended sharply higher overnight, lifted by gains in Nvidia and other technology-related stocks.

Asian markets traded mostly higher after reports suggested that Washington and Beijing are close to an agreement that could allow U.S. regulators to travel to Hong Kong to inspect the audit records of Chinese companies listed in New York.

The agreement could prevent many Chinese companies from being delisted from American stock exchanges.

The dollar held firm against the euro and sterling, as investors await Fed Chair Jerome Powell's widely-anticipated speech in the Jackson Hole Symposium later in the day for clues on the central bank's tightening plans.

Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields rose and oil prices gained around $1 a barrel on signs of improving fuel demand, while gold prices were a tad lower in Asian trade. Consumer confidence survey results from Germany and France are due later in the session. GfK's German forward-looking consumer confidence index is seen at -31.8 versus -30.6 in August. The French consumer confidence index is seen at 79 in August, down from 80 in July.

U.S. stocks closed on a strong note overnight, as jobless claims declined in the latest week and a revision for Q2 GDP showed a smaller decline compared to an earlier reading.

Ahead of a key speech by Fed Chair Powell, Kansas City Fed president Esther George told CNBC that there is more work to be done to curb inflation but It was too soon to predict the size of the September rate hike.

The Dow rallied 1 percent, the S&P 500 climbed 1.4 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite surged 1.7 percent.

European stocks closed broadly higher on Thursday, as Beijing announced a slew of measures to spur economic growth and the July ECB meeting minutes revealed that there was a split over the 50-bps rate hike to combat soaring inflation.

The pan European Stoxx 600 edged up 0.3 percent. The German DAX rose 0.4 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 inched up 0.1 percent while France's CAC 40 finished marginally lower.

Swiss Market Ends Moderately Lower

Despite a decent spell in positive territory till about an hour before noon, the Switzerland market turned weak and kept drifting lower as the session progressed on Thursday to eventually settle with a moderate loss.

RTTNews | 29 minutos atrás

European Stocks Close Mostly Weak As Investors React To Earnings

European markets closed mostly lower on Thursday as investors reacted to a slew of earnings announcements and digested the latest batch of economic data from the region, and also followed the developments on the trade front.

RTTNews | 59 minutos atrás

U.S. Consumer Price Growth Matches Estimates In June

A closely watched report released by the Commerce Department on Thursday showed consumer prices in the U.S. increased in line with economist estimates in the month of June. The Commerce Department said its personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index rose by 0.3 percent in June after inching up by an upwardly revised 0.2 percent in May.

RTTNews | 3 h 48 min atrás

German Unemployment Rises In July

Germany's unemployment increased less than expected in July but the overall number of people out of work remained close to the 3 million mark due to the prolonged period of economic slowdown, official data revealed on Thursday. The number of unemployed rose by less-than-expected 2,000 from June, the Federal Employment Agency said. For July, economists had forecast an increase of 15,000.

RTTNews | 4 h 30 min atrás

U.S. Jobless Claims Inch Up Less Than Expected To 218,000

First-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits edged slightly higher in the week ended July 26th, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday. The report said initial jobless claims crept up to 218,000, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 217,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 224,000.

RTTNews | 4 h 38 min atrás