European stock markets rose on Thursday, as investors digested a flood of corporate earnings ahead of the European Central Bank's latest policy decision and the release of regional growth data.
At 3:05 a.m. ET (08:05 GMT), Germany's DAX was up 0.2%, France's CAC 40 was up 0.3% and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was up 0.1%.
European equities benefited on Thursday from a rise in U.S. stock futures after the release of quarterly results from a number of megatech companies after the previous session's close, following the Federal Reserve's decision to keep interest rates unchanged.
However, attention now turns to the ECB, which is widely expected to cut interest rates by a quarter percentage point later in the session, despite rising euro zone inflation in recent months.
The ECB eased rates four times last year to address weak growth across the euro zone, and against that backdrop investors will be watching the latest euro zone growth data on Thursday.
Germany will release its quarterly GDP figures later in the session, before the euro zone figures.
Earlier, data released Thursday morning showed that the French economy contracted slightly in the fourth quarter, with the euro zone's second-largest economy shrinking by 0.1% in the final three months of 2024 after an unrevised 0.4% increase in the third quarter.(AL)
Source: Investing.com
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