European stocks closed sharply lower on Thursday after a brief uptick the previous day as investors weighed a fresh round of mixed corporate earnings and signs of higher unemployment in the US. The STOXX 50 fell 1% to 5,613 and the STOXX 600 fell 0.7% to 567. Commerzbank shares slipped 2% after the lender reported a surprise 7.9% year-on-year drop in net profit. Also, Diageo fell 6.5% following a downgrade to its full-year outlook, while Maersk lost 5.1% despite posting upbeat results and Rheinmetall fell 0.5% despite posting a 20% increase in sales. On the upside, DHL jumped 5.4% to rank...
The Hang Seng fell 283 points or 1.2% to close at 23,544 on Thursday, ending a two-day winning streak amid losses in global stocks following a sell-off on Wall Street due to concerns over U.S. fiscal stability. Meanwhile, President Trump pushed to pass a major spending and tax-cut package through Congress. The index retreated from a near two-month high, with sharp declines in tech, property, and consumer stocks. Limiting further weakness were reports that Morgan Stanley raised its 2025 GDP forecast for China to 4.5% and 4.2% for 2024, citing easing Sino-U.S. trade tensions and expected...
Japan stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Paper & Pulp, Transport and Communication sectors led shares lower. At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 lost 0.92%. The best performers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. (TYO:5801), which rose 11.33% or 635.00 points to trade at 6,238.00 at the close. Meanwhile, Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. (TYO:5802) added 2.61% or 68.50 points to end at 2,693.00 and Mitsubishi Logistics Corp. (TYO:9301) was up 2.33% or 25.50 points to 1,118.00 in late trade. The worst performers of the...
Europe stocks fall at open; EasyJet shares down 3% after earningsIt's ten minutes after the opening bell, and European markets are trading in negative territory. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index is 0.5% lower, with almost every sector in the red. Looking at regional bourses, the German DAX and French CAC 40 are both down by around 0.5%, while London's FTSE 100 has shed 0.4%. EasyJet reported a loss for the first six months of the year, but said current bookings indicate it will meet expectations for full-year profit. The airline said it made a pre-tax loss of £394 million ($529 million)...
Shares in Hong Kong fell 105 points or 0.4% to 23,717 on Thursday morning session, snapping gains in the prior two sessions following a tumble on Wall Street overnight as concerns mounted that a new budget bill in the U.S. would put more stress on an already large deficit. Markets retreated from their nearly two-month highs, hit the previous day, as broad-based losses across all sectors particularly property, consumer, and tech weighed on sentiment. Limiting further falls were upbeat notes from UBS highlighting a sharp revival in Hong Kong's IPO market in 2025, with year-to-date proceeds...
The Nikkei 225 Index dropped 0.8% to around 37,000 while the broader Topix Index lost 0.5% to 2,720 on Thursday, with Japanese shares hitting a two-week low and tracking a sharp selloff on Wall Street overnight. US stocks sold off on Wednesday as Treasury yields surged on concerns that a new US bill could further inflate the federal deficit. In domestic developments, Japan's core machinery orders a key leading indicator of capital investment unexpectedly surged 13% in March, far outpacing expectations for a 1.6% decline. Despite the upbeat data, sentiment was weighed down by weak economic...