Europe midday: Stocks little changed, euro edges higher after BoE raises rates
Grifols
€8.23
18:15 22/04/24
Trading in European stocks continued to be little changed come midday with investors apparently unfazed by the monetary policy committee's decision to raise Bank Rate for the first time since 2007, which ironically sent Sterling sharply lower against the single currency.
IBEX 35
11,039.50
18:44 22/04/24
Acting as a backdrop, investors were also waiting on the release of the White House's tax reform plans later in the session and Friday's all-important monthly US jobs report.
Ahead of latter, as of 1212 BST the benchmark Stoxx 600 was trading lower, slipping by 0.37% or 1.45 points to 395.28, alongside a drop of 0.15% or 20.63 points to 13,445.59 for the German Dax and a 0.15% or 8.15 point dip in the Cac-40 to 5,506.29.
In parallel, euro-dollar was managing a small bounce on the back of the latest German jobless numbers, rising by 0.27% to 1.1654, while the pound was down by 1.40% at 1.1239 agains the single currency.
Out on the euro area periphery, Spain's Ibex had extended its losses a bit, falling 0.27% or 28.40 points to 10,478.60, while the FSTE Mibtel was up by 0.03% or 7.20 points at 22,998.89.
Reagarding the crisis in Catalonia, the top 14 members of the sacked regional Catalan government testified before two judges in Madrid who reportedly asked for unconditional jail sentences for all of them except Santi Vila, the regional economic counsellor who resigned 24 hours before the Catalan parliament's vote on independence.
Meanwhile, in Barcelona, the city's mayor, Ada Colau, was taking part in a protest called by so-called civic group ANC against "the persecution of our legitimate leaders."
Also, according to Reuters, who cited a top judge in Spain, the country's courts were likely to issue a European arrest warrant for former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont.
European economic news was upbeat on Thursday, thus manufacturing activity in the single currency bloc continued accelerating last month, with revised data showing IHS Markit's purchasing managers' index for the sector printing at 58.5, up from a reading of 58.1 in the month before (consensus: 58.6).
Worth noting, according to the survey compiler the PMI results revealed company order backlogs standing at 15-year highs which saw supply chains across the euro area stretched to capacity.
In parallel, Germany's unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.6% in October with the number of jobless dropping by 11,000 (consensus: 10,000), according to the Ministry of Finance.
For its part, the Czech National Bank raised its main policy rate by 25 basis points to 0.50%, as expected by economists.
On the corporate front, Spain's Grifols was lower despite the release of nine-month profits after tax of €431.8m, versus €406.1m in the year-ago period. In reaction, analysts at Citi reiterated their 'buy' recommendation and €30 target price for the shares.
On the corporate front, Dutch lender ING posted stronger-than-expected third quarter profits of €1.38bn.
Fiat shares were also in the spotlight and were edging higher despite the manufacturer having reported a 13.2% drop in US car sales for the month of October.