Stocks climb on positive tech earnings, China rescue report
By Tom Wilson
LONDON (Reuters) -Global shares rose on Wednesday, fuelled by positive tech earnings and optimism Chinese authorities will offer support to its stock markets, while the euro rose after surveys suggested a brightening manufacturing outlook.
European stocks climbed 0.9%, on course for their best day since Dec. 1, with tech stocks adding over 3.6% to their highest in two years.
Dutch chipmaking kit manufacturer ASML Holding (AS:ASML) rose nearly 6% after beating fourth-quarter earnings estimates and posting its best quarterly orders.
Investors also focused on European manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) figures that depicted a tough start to 2024 for euro zone businesses as activity contracted again in January, although the outlook did improve somewhat.
Germany and France, the 20-country currency union's biggest economies, both saw an improvement in their manufacturing PMIs but a deterioration in their services indexes.
The euro rose after the surveys and was last up 0.4% at $1.0897.
The European Central Bank (ECB) meets on Thursday and is widely expected to keep rates unchanged — though traders are pricing in as much as 130 basis points of interest rate cuts this year.
«There's an awful lot of optimism out there — positive momentum from the finish in the U.S. last night,» said Michael Hewson, chief markets analyst at CMC Markets (LON:CMCX).
«But it's hard to escape the fact that we are very much in a range when it comes to UK and European markets,» he added, with U.S. stocks performing better as the economy there stages a more robust recovery.
Wall Street was set to gain, with e-mini futures for the S&P 500 up 0.4% as investors focused on a slew of earnings.
On Tuesday, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX)
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