Most of Europe’s stock markets ran into profit-taking yesterday as the continent’s main currencies posted fresh gains against the dollar, weighing on export-heavy stocks, as the Wall Street rally also stalled.
The underlying mood remained confident, however, traders said, buoyed by bullish Chinese data, strong corporate earnings and New York’s record close the previous day amid optimism over the impact of US President Donald Trump’s tax cuts.
Paris ended the day flat despite Airbus shares rising 0.7% after Emirates Airlines struck a $16bn deal to buy 36 Airbus A-380 superjumbos, having traded as much as 3% up on the day during the morning session. The CAC 40 closed 0.02% up at 5,494.83 points.
The Emirates order throws the A-380 programme a lifeline only days after the European manufacturer said it would have to halt production without new orders.
London also lapsed into the red as market participants eyed the strong pound, which weighs on the performance of multinational companies.
The FTSE 100 closed down 0.3% at 7,700.96 points, Frankfurt was the European standout, with the DAX 30 gaining 0.7% at 13,281.43 points as German semiconductor giant Infineon’s shares surged a day after stellar annual results from Dutch computer chip maker ASML.
Wall Street was flat at the opening, with “the markets assessing the recent global rally”, said Charles Schwab analysts.
But by late morning trading the Dow was showing a loss of 0.3%.
Bitcoin climbed more than 6%, according to Bloomberg data, a day after falling through the $10,000 mark for the first time since mid-December.
“Fears over the demise of the sector have been rife since their inception, and with back-to-back double digit declines this week, many believed we were seeing the beginning of the end for this latest bubble,” said market analyst Joshua Mahony at online trading firm IG.
Oil prices perked up after US crude stockpiles fell by nearly seven million barrels last week, more than double what analysts had expected.
Once again, Hong Kong was the star performer in Asia, notching up an historic record as investors tracked another milestone on Wall Street.
Hong Kong rose 0.4%, holding above the 32,000 mark it broke in the morning for the first time in its history.
The market has fallen only once in the past 17 trading days.
Shanghai ended up 0.9%. After the market closed data showed the Chinese economy grew a forecast-beating 6.9% in 2017, the first annual improvement in the growth rate since 2010.
The GDP reading follows strong trade data last week, which showed the humming global economy had propelled China’s export machine.

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