European Shares Slightly Higher; Flash Eurozone GDP Data Awaited

(RTTNews) - European stocks traded higher on Tuesday as investors digested mixed regional data and looked ahead to key Fed and BOE meetings this week for directional cues.

The pan-European STOXX 600 rose 0.3 percent to 486.31 after gaining 0.2 percent in the previous session.

The German DAX edged up 0.1 percent, France's CAC 40 added 0.3 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was up 0.6 percent.

Spanish lender BBVA rallied 3.4 percent after posting solid fourth-quarter results and announcing a share buyback of 781 million euros ($846.1 million).

Diageo shares tumbled 3.6 percent in London. First-half profits at the spirits manufacturer fell by more than a tenth as demand for expensive spirts waned in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) regions.

Advertising agency WPP jumped 4 percent after upgrading its medium-term financial targets.

Infrastructure products group Hill & Smith added about 1 percent after appointing a new chief operating officer.

Shares of German food delivery service Delivery Hero fell nearly 9 percent. The company said it would sell a stake in Deliveroo as consumer demand wanes.

MorphoSys advanced 2 percent. The biopharmaceutical company expects Monjuvi U.S. net product sales to be in the range of $80 million to $95 million for the year 2024, in line with its previous guidance.

Hapag-Lloyd plunged 9 percent. The container shipping company registered a significant decline in preliminary earnings for the full year, mainly due to lower freight rates attributable to normalization of global supply chains.

Zurich Insurance dropped half a percent after an announcement that Viridium Group won't buy its legacy life insurance policy business in Germany.

In economic releases, German GDP dropped 0.3 percent in the fourth quarter after stagnating in the previous two quarters, data published by Destatis showed - matching expectations. The statistical office confirmed that GDP fell 0.3 percent in 2023.

Separate data showed France narrowly escaped a recession in the latter half of last year.

France's GDP posted nil growth in the fourth quarter, the same rate as seen in the third quarter, flash data from the statistical office INSEE showed.

Another report from the INSEE showed that French household consumption growth softened in December reflecting a decrease in food consumption.

Elsewhere, the British Retail Consortium said the annual shop price inflation in the U.K. slowed to 2.9 percent in January, down from 4.3 percent the month prior.

It marks the seventh consecutive monthly decline and the lowest rate since May 2022.

Preliminary fourth-quarter euro zone GDP data is due to be released later in the session.