By Sukriti Gupta
(Reuters) -European shares climbed on Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump signalled progress toward a first trade deal in his global tariff dispute, boosting market sentiment.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index was up 0.5%, as of 0835 GMT. Other regional indexes also rose with Germany up nearly 1%, France higher by 0.8%, while Spain was down 0.2%.
The UK advanced 0.3% ahead of a widely expected rate cut from the Bank of England later in the day.
Trump posted on Truth Social that he will hold a news conference later in the day about a “major trade deal with representatives of a big, and highly respected, country”.
A British government spokesperson said that Prime Minister Keir Starmer would give an update on U.S.-UK trade talks later in the day.
This comes ahead of potential ice-breaker talks between Washington and Beijing trade tsars this weekend, that have firmed hopes for de-escalation in trade tensions between the world’s two leading economies.
“It’s worth highlighting that generally trade deals take quite a long time and it’s not at all clear what sort of trade deal we’ll see, but investors still seem to be in the mindset that incrementally positive news flow on the likelihood of trade deals is enough to be a little bit more supportive for markets,” said Richard Flax, chief investment officer at Moneyfarm.
Overnight, in a widely expected decision, the Federal Reserve held its interest rates steady, with the U.S. central bank flagging that the risks of higher inflation and unemployment had risen.
Separately, Trump’s administration plans to rescind and modify a Biden-era rule that curbed the export of sophisticated artificial-intelligence chips, said a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Commerce.
European technology stocks led sector gains on Thursday, rising by 2.5%.
In addition, Barclays upgraded growth stocks to “neutral” in Europe.
Shares of A.P. Moller-Maersk fell 2.1% after the shipping group lowered its global container market forecast for the year.
Securitas fell 6.7% after the Swedish security firm reported a smaller-than-expected rise in its first-quarter core profit.
Beer brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev climbed about 3% after the company reported a nearly 8% rise in first-quarter operating profit, beating analysts’ estimate by more than double.
Siemens Energy gained 3.5% after the power equipment maker’s second-quarter net profit significantly exceeded expectations.
Meanwhile, Jeronimo Martins surged 7.2% following stronger-than-expected quarterly results from the Portuguese retailer and food distributor.
Shares of Holmen jumped 6.5% after the Swedish paper products maker’s operating profit beat expectations.
(Reporting by Sukriti Gupta in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
