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European markets were surrounded by somewhat mixed outlooks on Thursday, as the U.S. Federal Reserve came to a decision to maintain the current level of interest rates, and as investor’s reacted to a slew of earnings reports.
All major European indexes, Uk’s FTSE 100, France’s CAC 40 and Germany’s Deutsche Boerse were all in the red, reporting a marginal decline.
On the other side of the pond, US stocks traded mixed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average had a good day, closing at a record on Thursday driven by earnings in the likes of Verizon and Boeing. But the broader market finished in negative territory due to a firm slump in technology stocks.
Food and beverage companies amongst the top performers
In Europe, food and beverage companies were amongst the top performers at around mid-day trade as investors digested strong earnings news.
British alcoholic beverage company Diageo, the company behind Smirnoff Vodka and Johnnie Walker, shares surged to an all-time high after pledging to spend £1.5 billion to buy back its shares from investors.
Facebook’s rise vs Twitter’s fall
American social network giant Facebook shares were significantly up on Thursday’s trading session after posting a better-than-expected quarterly profit figure of $3.89 billion, up 71 percent from last year. Following this announcement Facebook shares hit a record figure, resulting in Facebook becoming the second tech giant to hit a market capitalisation of $500 billion in just two days.
In contrast to Facebook’s surge, Twitter Inc. shares dropped 13 percent in mid-day trading after reporting the number of monthly active users, which have remained flat from the previous quarter, and a decline in advertising revenue, year-over-year.
Boeing soared to record high
World’s biggest plane maker; Boeing shares soared in the past two trading sessions after posting second-quarter profit and cash flow which were well ahead of Wall Street estimates. The airline reported a net profit of $1.76 billion, compared to the previous year’s loss of $234 million.
After announcing the results, Dennis Muilenburg, the company’s CEO; who proved to be instrumental in Boeing’s recent success, stated that the company is not planning any further restructuring, but will keep on cutting costs aggressively.
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