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European Stocks Advancing in Thursday Trading; Tech Stocks Rally After Xi Says China Will 'Open Wider'

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The European stock markets were tracking higher in Thursday trading following media reports that China and the US have agreed that Iran can't have nuclear weapons or control of the Strait of Hormuz.

The Stoxx Europe was rising 0.7%, Germany's DAX was climbing 1.3%, the FTSE 100 was up 0.5%, France's CAC was increasing 0.9%, and the Swiss Market Index was advancing 0.7%.

Chinese President Xi Jinping also told the chief executives of Apple, Tesla, Nvidia, and other large companies that China will "open wider" to doing business, according to media reports.

The news buoyed European tech stocks as semiconductor companies Infineon and STMicroelectronics were climbing 7% and 6% respectively in Paris and Frankfurt, while ASML was up close to 3% in Amsterdam. Software firms SAP and Dassault Systemes were gaining 3.5% and 2.5% on the DAX and CAC respectively.

UK real gross domestic product expanded an estimated 0.6% in Q1, following revised growth of 0.2% in Q4 of 2025, according to the Office for National Statistics. The GDP for Europe's second-largest economy grew 0.3% in March, 0.4% in February, and was stagnant in January.

In corporate news, Telefonica reported Q1 adjusted earnings from continuing operations Thursday of 0.07 euro ($0.07) per share, down from 0.10 euro a year earlier.

Revenue for the quarter ended March 31 was 8.13 billion euros, up from 8.09 billion euros a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected 8.15 billion euros.

Shares of the Spanish telecommunications operator were surging close to 7% in Madrid.

AstraZeneca said Thursday that a combination of its Imfinzi drug and enfortumab vedotin showed significant improvements in event-free and overall survival rates in a phase 3 muscle-invasive bladder cancer trial.

The mid-term analysis of the study focused on patients who were unable to receive or declined standard cisplatin chemotherapy by itself, the company said.

Shares of the British pharmaceutical company were little changed in London, edging 0.1% higher.

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US Equity Indexes Mixed as Communication Services, Tech Help Outweigh Impact of Hot Producer Prices

US equity indexes closed mixed on Wednesday, as communication services and technology led sectors amid the fastest annual pace of growth in producer prices in four years, signaling the strength of the so-called AI trade.The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1% to 49,693.20. The Nasdaq jumped 1.2% to 26,402.34, and the S&P 500 climbed 0.6% to 7,444.25.In a broadly positive tape, communication services, technology, and consumer discretionary were among the top gainers. Utilities, financials, real estate, and industrials declined.Of the top 10 companies with a market capitalization of more than $200 billion, implying a significant sway over indexes, seven were from technology and communication services, according to data compiled by Finviz. Nasdaq's leaders included Marvell Technology (MRVL), Arm (ARM), and Micron Technology (MU). In the S&P 500, ON Semiconductor (ON) and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) were among the biggest outperformers. Nvidia (NVDA) and Cisco (CSCO) were in the top five gainers on the Dow.In economic news, the Producer Price Index soared 1.4% month-over-month in April from a 0.7% gain in March, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The print beat the 0.5% increase expected in a Bloomberg-compiled survey. After excluding food and energy prices, core PPI surged 1.0% from 0.2%, above the 0.3% advance anticipated.Year-over-year, PPI soared 6.0% in April while core PPI catapulted 5.2%, both above their respective March rates and the strongest readings since December 2022.A hotter-than-expected PPI, coupled with Tuesday's larger-than-expected rise in the consumer price index, underscores not only the price impact already realized but the "additional inflationary pressures still coming down the pipeline," according to a Stifel note.With energy cost passthrough likely to keep year-over-year core personal consumption expenditures, or PCE, inflation closer to 3% than 2% all year, Goldman Sachs said in a note that lower monthly inflation prints after the oil shock fades and further labor market softening will likely be needed for Fed rate cuts this year."We now expect it to take a bit longer to meet that bar," the investment bank said while pushing back the final two rate cuts in its forecast to December 2026 and March 2027.US Treasury yields were mostly down, with the 10-year steady to slightly lower at 4.47%.The two-year slipped 1.5 basis points to 3.98%.Meanwhile, in its closely watched Oil Market Report, the International Energy Agency said the loss of Persian Gulf supply is depleting global inventories at a record pace. Inventories fell by 129 million barrels per day in March and by 117 million bpd in April, though rising output from producers outside of the Gulf is helping to ease the supply shock."With Hormuz tanker traffic still restricted, cumulative supply losses from Gulf producers already exceed 1 billion barrels with more than 14 mb/d of oil now shut in, an unprecedented supply shock," the agency said.Nevertheless, West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures fell 0.9% to $101.29, and Brent crude futures declined 1.8% to $105.81.In precious metals, gold futures rose 0.3% to $4,696.2, and silver futures jumped 3.1% to $88.27.

Dow JonesNasdaq CompositeS&P 500$ARM$CSCO$HPE$MRVL$MU$NVDA$ON
Asia Markets

US Equity Indexes Mixed Amid Hot Producer Prices, Tech Gains

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Dow JonesNasdaq CompositeS&P 500$MRVL$NVDA$ON
Asia Markets

Exchange-Traded Funds, US Equities Mixed After Midday

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Dow Jones^EEM^EXI^FAS^FAZ^GLD^IBB^IGM^IGV^IPK^IVV^IWMNasdaq Composite^IYE^IYH^IYJ^IYK^IYW^PMR^QQQ^RTH^SOXXS&P 500^SPY^UNG^USO^VDC^VHT^VIS^XLE^XLF^XLI^XLK^XLP^XLV^XRT^XSD$BETH$BITO$EETH