LONDON: European stocks rebounded yesterday on figures that showed a pick up in the US growth rate, after having taken a hit on the Spanish unemployment rate breaching 25 percent for the first time, traders said.
London’s FTSE 100 index of top companies closed up a marginal 0.03 percent to 5,806.71 points, while Frankfurt DAX 30 gained 0.44 percent to 7,231.85 points, and in Paris the CAC 40 climbed 0.69 percent to 3,435.09 points. Madrid’s IBEX 35 ended down 0.05 percent.
In foreign exchange trading, the euro was flat at $1.2931 from $1.2930 in New York on Thursday.
On the London Bullion Market, gold prices climbed to $1,716 an ounce from $1,715.50 an ounce on Thursday.
The US economy picked up steam in the third quarter after a tepid second quarter, growing at a better-than-expected annualised pace of 2.0 percent as consumer spending and home sales rose, the government said.
US stocks failed to get much of a boost however, with Wall Street still under the shadow of earnings disappointments on Thursday from tech giants Apple and Amazon. Apple lost 1 percent after reporting a quarterly profit of $8.2bn but missing expectations.
Amazon stunned with a loss, mainly from a writedown of its stake in LivingSocial and higher operating costs, but the online retailer’s shares rose 2.2 percent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.13 percent to 13,086.80 points in midday trading. The broad-based S&P 500 lost 0.40 percent to 1,407.38 points, while the Nasdaq Composite gave up 0.27 percent to 2,978.10 points.
While European stocks markets cheered the US growth figures, analysts cautioned the headline figure hid some concerning trends. “Third quarter US GDP has come in at 2.0 percent - a bit stronger than expectations – but the reading is not nearly as good as it looks at first glance,” said ING bank analyst Rob Carnell.
While consumer spending grew strongly, Carnell noted that business investment was flat and that much of the overall growth was due to a surge in government spending that was unlikely to last.
Asian stock markets closed lower as dealers looked ahead to the release later in the day of US economic growth figures.
AFP
