logo
European shares flat as investors assess mixed earnings; focus on US-EU trade talks

European shares flat as investors assess mixed earnings; focus on US-EU trade talks

European shares were subdued early in the session on Monday as investors assessed a mixed bag of corporate earnings while awaiting a potential trade deal between the United States and the European Union.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index was down 0.01% at 546.97 points, as of 0719 GMT.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Sunday he was confident that Washington can secure a trade deal with the EU, but August 1 is a hard deadline for tariffs to kick in.
He added there is 'plenty of room' for a deal after speaking with European negotiators.
European basic resources gained 2.6%, the most among sectors, while automobile fell 0.3%.
Among stocks, Ryanair gained 5.8% and was one of the biggest percentage gainers in the STOXX 600, after Europe's largest low-cost carrier's net profit more than doubled in its April-June quarter.
Conversely, Stellantis fell 2.4% after the automaker said it expects a net loss of 2.3 billion euros ($2.68 billion) for the first half of 2025.
Also on Monday, the Chinese foreign ministry said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Gold subdued as trade optimism weighs, but soft dollar cap losses
Gold subdued as trade optimism weighs, but soft dollar cap losses

Business Recorder

time2 minutes ago

  • Business Recorder

Gold subdued as trade optimism weighs, but soft dollar cap losses

Gold prices edged lower on Friday, as signs of progress in trade negotiations between the U.S. and its trading partners weighed on safe-haven demand, although an overall weaker dollar limited losses for bullion. Spot gold was down 0.1% at $3,363.91 per ounce, as of 0243 GMT. However, bullion has gained 0.4% so far this week. U.S. gold futures fell 0.2% to $3,365.50. 'Basically we are seeing some profit-taking from short-term bullish speculators due to the fact that we now start to see this trade-deal optimism in the market,' OANDA senior market analyst Kelvin Wong said. 'However, the dollar is in a weakening bias and on top of that, we still have the Fed rate cuts pretty much alive at this juncture, which are supporting gold near $3,360 level.' The European Union and the United States now appear to be heading towards a possible trade deal, according to EU diplomats, which would result in a broad 15% tariff on EU goods imported into the U.S., mirroring a framework agreement Washington struck with Japan. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq notched record closing highs overnight as signs of easing global trade tensions lifted risk sentiment among investors. Offering respite to gold, the U.S. dollar index was headed for its worst week in a month, making greenback-priced gold less expensive for other currency holders. Data showed U.S. jobless claims unexpectedly fell last week, signalling a steady labour market despite sluggish hiring making it harder for the unemployed to find work. The Federal Reserve is also widely expected to leave rates unchanged at its July 29–30 meeting, but markets continue to price in a potential rate cut in September. Spot silver rose 0.2% at $39.14 per ounce and was on track for a weekly gain, up 2.5% for the week. Platinum eased 0.2% to $1,407.10 and palladium climbed 0.9% to $1,238.73.

Elon Musk's Starlink network suffers rare global outage
Elon Musk's Starlink network suffers rare global outage

Business Recorder

time2 minutes ago

  • Business Recorder

Elon Musk's Starlink network suffers rare global outage

SpaceX's Starlink suffered one of its biggest international outages on Thursday when an internal software failure knocked tens of thousands of users offline, a rare disruption for Elon Musk's powerful satellite internet system. Users in the U.S. and Europe began experiencing the outage at around 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT), according to Downdetector, a crowdsourced outage tracker that said as many as 61,000 user reports to the site were made. Starlink, which has more than 6 million users across roughly 140 countries and territories, later acknowledged the outage on its X account and said 'we are actively implementing a solution.' Starlink service mostly resumed after 2.5 hours, Michael Nicolls, Starlink vice president of Starlink Engineering, wrote on X. India grants licence to Musk's Starlink 'The outage was due to failure of key internal software services that operate the core network,' Nicolls said, apologizing for the disruption and vowing to find its root cause. Musk had also apologized: 'Sorry for the outage. SpaceX will remedy root cause to ensure it doesn't happen again,' the SpaceX CEO wrote on X. The outage was a rare hiccup for SpaceX's most commercially sensitive business that had experts speculating whether the service, known for its resilience and rapid growth, was beset by a glitch, a botched software update or even a cyberattack. Doug Madory, an expert at the internet analysis firm Kentik, said the outage was global and that such a sweeping interruption was unusual. 'This is likely the longest outage ever for Starlink, at least while it became a major service provider,' Madory said. As Starlink gained more users, SpaceX has focused heavily in recent months on updating its network to accommodate demands for higher speed and bandwidth. The company in a partnership with T-Mobile is also expanding the constellation with larger, more powerful satellites to offer direct-to-cell text messaging services, a line of business in which mobile phone users can send emergency text messages through the network in rural areas. SpaceX has launched more than 8,000 Starlink satellites since 2020, building a uniquely distributed network in low-Earth orbit that has attracted intense demand from militaries, transportation industries and consumers in rural areas with poor access to traditional, fiber-based internet. 'I'd speculate this is a bad software update, not entirely dissimilar to the CrowdStrike mess with Windows last year, or a cyberattack,' said Gregory Falco, director of a space and cybersecurity laboratory at Cornell University. An update to CrowdStrike's widely used cybersecurity software led to worldwide flight cancellations and impacted industries around the globe in July last year. The outage disrupted internet services, affecting 8.5 million Microsoft Windows devices. It was unclear whether Thursday's outage affected SpaceX's other satellite-based services that rely on the Starlink network. Starshield, the company's military satellite business unit, has billions of dollars' worth of contracts with the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies.

Dip in Asian currencies, outflows likely to keep up pressure on Indian rupee
Dip in Asian currencies, outflows likely to keep up pressure on Indian rupee

Business Recorder

time2 minutes ago

  • Business Recorder

Dip in Asian currencies, outflows likely to keep up pressure on Indian rupee

MUMBAI: The Indian rupee is expected to open weaker on Friday and trade with a modest depreciation bias amid a dip in its regional peers and lingering pressure from portfolio outflows as investors gird for an upcoming news-heavy week. The 1-month non-deliverable forward indicated the rupee will open around 86.48-86.50 versus the U.S. dollar, compared with 86.4050 in the previous session. Asian currencies were down between 0.1% and 0.3%, while the dollar index ticked up to 97.5, as investors braced for U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff deadline, a Federal Reserve policy decision, and key U.S. economic data releases, all due next week. The rupee is expected to trade with a slight downward bias and could test support near 86.70-86.80 in the near term, a trader at a state-run bank said. While there is 'nascent' interbank interest in taking long bets on the rupee, that is largely on the back of the market expecting some positive announcement on U.S.-India trade negotiations, the trader added. While optimism about U.S. trade deals with China and the European Union has picked up after an agreement with Japan, the prospects of a deal for India ahead of the August 1 deadline have dimmed. Britain and India signed a free trade agreement on Thursday, with India's trade minister saying that he remains confident of concluding a trade deal with the U.S. while downplaying the significance of the looming deadline. 'Beyond tariffs and the rush to close the art of the deal, one continuing theme that we see in Asia and many countries outside the U.S. is the acceleration in moves to diversify away from or at least hedge with the U.S.,' MUFG said in a note. In addition to the wait for a trade agreement with the U.S., foreign portfolio outflows have been a pain point for the rupee with overseas investors pulling out about $500 million from local stocks over July so far.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store