European stocks mixed; HSBC weighs on UK market
Investing.com — European stock markets traded in a mixed fashion Wednesday, with investors digesting a raft of corporate results, including disappointment from heavyweight HSBC.
At 03:05 ET (08:05 GMT), the DAX index in Germany traded 0.1% higher, the CAC 40 in France traded up 0.1%, while the FTSE 100 in the U.K. dropped 0.5%.
It’s the corporate sector that is in the spotlight Wednesday, as the quarterly earnings season continued in full flow.
The day’s highlight is set to come from the U.S., with the main beneficiary of the artificial intelligence boom, Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), set to report another impressive quarter.
The chipmaker is widely expected to more than triple quarterly revenue to roughly $20 billion, but even this may not be enough to keep the stock rising given its stratospheric rise over the last 18 months or so on the back of the seemingly unquenchable demand of all things AI.
Back in Europe, HSBC (LON:HSBA), the region’s largest lender, reported a record annual profit of $30.3 billion for 2023, up 78% from a year earlier, and announced a fresh $2 billion share buyback.
Still, its stock fell 5% as this result was marred by a $3 billion impairment on the bank's stake in China's Bank of Communications.
Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) stock fell 1.2% after the miner’s underlying profit fell about 12% to $11.8 billion for 2023 as softer iron ore prices and demand weighed on its topline, and it warned that it still faced rising costs.
Glencore (OTC:GLNCY) stock fell 3.9% after the commodities trader and miner said that lower commodity prices had halved its earnings last year, prompting it to cut its dividend.
BAE Systems (LON:BAES) stock reported better-than-expected full-year profits and the British defense contractor
Read more on investing.com
