European markets pare losses to close higher after U.S. economy contracted

This was C온라인카지노사이트's live blog covering European markets.

European stocks pared losses to close higher on Wednesday, as investors reacted to worse-than-expected economic data out of the United States.

The  index closed up 0.46%, its seventh consecutive winning day.

Earnings highlights

• Swiss giant UBS beats expectations with $1.69 billion profit | view post
• Barclays beats on profit and revenue, CEO says braced for economic slowdown | view post
• Volkswagen posts 37% drop in first-quarter profit | view post
• Stellantis suspends full-year guidance due to uncertainties over Trump tariffs | view post
• TotalEnergies reports 18% drop in first-quarter profit on weaker crude prices | view post
• Healthcare stocks jump as companies address U.S. tariffs impact | view post

The Stoxx automotive sector index fell 1.2% as earnings weakness overrode U.S. President Donald Trump some of his automotive tariffs. The move maintains a 25% vehicle import rate but reduces the overall level as a result of additional duties on products such as steel and aluminum.

Healthcare stocks moved higher, with the regional Stoxx Healthcare index adding 1.3%. A number of companies in the industry addressed U.S. tariffs in their first-quarter earnings reports, with , and all telling investors they were well positioned to cope with any impact.

Trump's tariffs have unsurprisingly in early corporate results, with many citing the difficulty of forecasting, while bank profits beat estimates. Those trends continued Wednesday, with Swiss lender reporting of $1.692 billion in the first quarter, while auto giant suspended its .

Elsewhere, on Wednesday that the euro zone economy grew by a better-than-expected 0.4% in the first quarter of the year, following .

Speaking to C온라인카지노사이트's "" on Wednesday, Gediminas Šimkus, chair of the Bank of Lithuania and a member of the European Central Bank's Governing Council, said he backed a quarter percentage point rate cut at the ECB's next meeting in June and that it is "basically general knowledge" that U.S. tariffs will be disinflationary for the euro area in the short term.

were mixed on Wednesday.

European stocks rise despite worse-than-expected economic data out of the United States

European stocks pared losses to close higher on Wednesday, as investors reacted to worse-than-expected economic data out of the United States.

The  index closed up 0.46%, its seventh consecutive winning day. The U.K.'s rose for 13 consecutive sessions.

France's CAC 40 and Germany's DAX were up 0.5% and 0.32%, respectively.

— Ganesh Rao

Euro, sterling fall against the dollar; Swiss franc rallies

The was 0.1% lower against the at 1:50 p.m. in London, trading at around $1.137. The extended its losses against the greenback to trade at $1.336 — a decline of 0.4%.

The safe haven rose slightly against the U.S. currency.  

— Chloe Taylor

U.S. economy shrunk 0.3% in the first quarter as Trump policy uncertainty weighed on businesses

The U.S. economy contracted in the first three months of 2025, fueling recession fears at the start of President Donald Trump's second term in office as he wages a potentially costly trade war.

Gross domestic product, a sum of all the goods and services produced from January through March, fell at a 0.3% annualized pace, according to a Commerce Department report Wednesday adjusted for seasonal factors and inflation.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for a gain of 0.4% after GDP rose by 2.4% in the fourth quarter of 2024. However, over the past day or so some Wall Street economists changed their outlook to negative growth, largely fueled by an unexpected rise in imports as companies and consumers sought to get ahead of the Trump tariffs implemented in early April. Imports subtract from GDP.

— Chloe Taylor

Private U.S. payroll growth slowed to 62,000 in April, well below expectations

U.S. companies slowed hiring sharply in April as they braced against potential impacts from President Donald Trump's tariffs against U.S. trading partners, ADP reported Wednesday.

Private sector payrolls rose by just 62,000 for the month, the smallest gain since July 2024, amid heightened uncertainty over the degree of the tariffs and the impact they would have on hiring plans and broader economic conditions.

The total marked a deceleration from the  and missed the Dow Jones consensus estimate for an increase of 120,000.

Health-care stocks lead regional gains as companies address U.S. tariffs impact

The regional Stoxx Healthcare index was 1.5% higher at 11:18 a.m. in London, making the industry one of the best-performing sectors in Europe as a number of pharmaceutical companies updated investors on their outlook for the rest of the year.

British medical equipment manufacturer Smith+Nephew on Wednesday its full-year guidance of around 5% revenue growth in 2025, saying its unchanged outlook included an expected net impact of $15 million to $20 million from U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs regime this year.  

"Just over half our revenues are in the US and two thirds of the products we sell within the US are manufactured in-market," the company said in its first-quarter earnings release. "Our other manufacturing sites are in Costa Rica, UK, Malaysia, China and Switzerland. We are working to mitigate tariff impacts from products and raw materials imported into the US, including leveraging our global manufacturing network in terms of mix and supply routes."

Shares of Smith+Nephew gained 6.7% during morning deals, pushing the company's stock close to the top of the Stoxx 600 index. The company's first-quarter revenue came in at $1.4 billion, in line with estimates.

U.K. pharmaceutical giant GSK, which also a quarterly earnings report on Wednesday, saw shares jump 4.2% after it confirmed its 2025 guidance and addressed the possibility of the Trump administration slapping the industry with new import duties.

"The company is well positioned to respond to the potential financial impact of sector-specific tariffs, should they be implemented, with mitigation options identified in the supply chain and productivity initiatives," GSK said in its earnings update. "The company will continue to monitor and review developments related to this situation."

GSK's £7.5 billion ($10 billion) first-quarter revenue came in above the £7.4 billion expected by analysts polled by LSEG.

The companies' statements came a day after AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot told reporters the pharmaceutical giant was well positioned to cope with any tariff shocks.

"If tariffs were implemented in the range we have seen recently in other industries on medicines imported from Europe to the U.S., we would remain within the guidance range we indicated for 2025," he said, in comments cited by news agency . "It's really something that we are going to manage."

AstraZeneca's stock was trading 1.6% higher on Wednesday morning in London.

— Chloe Taylor

Euro zone economy expands by 0.4% in the first quarter

The euro zone economy grew by a stronger-than-expected 0.4% in the first quarter, flash data from statistics agency Eurostat showed Wednesday, as global tariff tensions are casting uncertainty upon the bloc's growth prospects.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a 0.2% expansion in the first three months of the year. This compares to a revised 0.2% growth print in the last quarter of 2024.

Euro zone economic growth has been lackluster for much of 2023 and 2024, even as the European Central Bank has been cutting interest rates in an effort to stimulate growth and boost economic activity. The ECB's deposit facility rate, its key rate, was taken down to 2.25%  — down from highs of 4% in mid-2023.

— Jenni Reid and Sophie Kiderlin

Germany economy expands 0.2% in first quarter

Germany's economy expanded by 0.2% in the first quarter from the previous three-month period, preliminary data showed, as U.S. tariff tensions threaten the country's growth outlook.

The figure, released by the German federal statistics office, is adjusted for price, calendar and seasonal variations.

The gross domestic product reading was in line with estimates from economists polled by Reuters. Germany's gross domestic had contracted by 0.2% in the .

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— Sophie Kiderlin

Europe stocks open higher

European stock markets traded broadly higher at 8:48 a.m. in London, with Germany's up 0.5% and France's climbing 0.26% while the U.K.'s was flat.

The regional was meanwhile 0.28% higher, looking for its seventh straight session gain in its longest run in the green since January. The index has recovered recent losses and is now up around 3.5% in the year to date, while the U.S. S&P 500 has fallen 5.45%.

— Jenni Reid

Barclays beats on profit and revenue, CEO says braced for economic slowdown

British bank  reported slight beats on the top and bottom line in the first quarter, boosted by stronger investment bank performance.

Pre-tax profit came in at £2.7 billion ($3.6 billion), up 11% year-on-year and ahead of analyst expectations of £2.49 billion, according to LSEG. Group revenues hit £7.7 billion, above an analyst projection of £7.33 billion. Income from investment banking, its most profitable division, increased 16% to £3.87 billion.

Key to investors is how Barclays navigates its sizable U.S. exposure in the market storm unleashed by U.S. President Donald Trump's global trade tariffs.

Speaking to C온라인카지노사이트's "Squawk Box Europe" on Wednesday, Barclays CEO C.S. Venkatakrishnan said he was expecting "fairly high market volatility" going forward.

"As you've seen in our results, that market volatility helps us help clients manage their risk, we can do so in a profitable way that helps them as well and helps markets income, as long as you manage your risk well."

Venkatakrishnan continued that he saw a "risk of a slowdown in economic activity" as a result of uncertainty and that the bank was preparing for potential weakness in its major U.K. and U.S. markets.

— Jenni Reid

French oil giant TotalEnergies posts 18% drop in first-quarter profit on weaker crude prices

France's posted a significant drop in first-quarter profit, following a period of lower crude prices and weak refining margins.

The oil and gas giant posted first-quarter adjusted net income of $4.19 billion, reflecting a 18% fall from the same period last year.

Analysts had expected TotalEnergies first-quarter adjusted net income to come in at $4.33 billion, according to an LSEG-compiled consensus.

The energy major reported adjusted net income of in the first quarter last year and for the final three months of 2024.

The results come as Big Oil's profits continue to fall from . Weaker crude prices, ongoing demand fears and U.S. President Donald Trump's back-and-forth trade policy have in recent months.

— Sam Meredith

Stellantis suspends full-year guidance due to uncertainties over Trump tariffs

Auto giant  said it was due to uncertainties regarding the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump's back-and-forth trade policy.

The multinational conglomerate, which owns household names including Jeep, Dodge, Fiat, Chrysler and Peugeot, reported first-quarter net revenues of 35.8 billion euros ($40.7 billion), reflecting a 14% drop from the previous year.

The company said the decline in net revenues was primarily due to lower shipment volumes, an adverse regional mix and price normalization.

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— Sam Meredith

ECB should cut rates by 25 basis points next month: ECB’s Šimkus

Speaking to C온라인카지노사이트's "" on Wednesday, Gediminas Šimkus, chair of the Bank of Lithuania and a member of the European Central Bank's Governing Council, said he is a "proponent of a 25-basis-points cut" at the ECB's next meeting in June.

He said there are multiple disinflationary forces at play across the euro area, including a decline in job postings, falling oil and gas prices and the euro appreciating against the dollar. In addition, he said, it is "basically general knowledge" that in the short term, U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs will be disinflationary.

"It's not that clear about the medium and longer term, but in the short term it's disinflationary," he said of the tariffs. However, he argued that the ECB should not be building its monetary policy around changes being imposed by the White House.

"I think we base our decision on what's happening in the euro area and not what the trade policy is of the U.S.," Šimkus told C온라인카지노사이트. "So I think it's very much appropriate to take any decision that we think is needed in June. I see many disinflationary forces coming in, so in my understanding it would be the appropriate decision to proceed with the interest cut in June."

— Chloe Taylor

Auto giant Volkswagen posts 37% drop in first-quarter profit

German auto giant  reported a substantial drop in first-quarter profit as the carmaker navigates the  of U.S. tariffs on the global car industry.

Europe's biggest carmaker reported operating profit of 2.9 billion euros ($3.3 billion) for the first three months of the year, down 37% from the same period last year.

Volkswagen reported first-quarter sales revenue of 77.6 billion euros, up 2.8% from the first quarter of 2024. The company cited higher vehicle sales in markets outside China as underpinning the increase.

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— Sam Meredith

Swiss giant UBS beats expectations with $1.69 billion profit

Swiss giant  beat bottom line expectations as the lender seeks to rein in steep share declines that have cost it the crown of continental Europe's largest bank amid sweeping U.S. tariffs.

Net profit attributable to shareholders hit $1.692 billion in the first quarter, compared with a mean forecast of $1.359 billion in a LSEG poll of analysts. Group revenue over the stretch stood at $12.557 billion, versus analyst expectations of $12.99 billion.

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— Ruxandra Iordache

Europe markets: Here are the opening calls

European markets were heading for a mixed open on Wednesday, according to IG data at 4 a.m. U.K. time.

London's FTSE 100 was set to nudge 5.6 points higher to 8,475, Germany's DAX 34.7 points higher to 22,486, and Italy's MIB 77.6 points higher to 37,443. France's CAC 40 was last seen slipping 6.9 points to 7,561.

— Jenni Reid

China's factory activity drops to a near two-year low in April as trade tariffs bite

China's manufacturing activity fell more-than-expected to a near two-year low, sliding into contractionary territory in April as the escalating trade war with the U.S. hurts bilateral trade.

The official purchasing managers' index came in at 49.0 in April, falling below the 50-level threshold which determines expansion from contraction, for the first time since January, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday.

That reading missed the analysts' expectations for a 49.8 contraction in a Reuters poll, marking a notable slowdown after China's manufacturing activity grew at its , as exporters front-loaded outbound shipments to avoid higher duties.

Read the full story .

—Anniek Bao

Samsung’s first-quarter operating profit and revenue beat expectations as chip sales rise

' operating profit and revenue beat analysts' estimates Wednesday, as chip sales rose amid worries of U.S. President Donald Trump's "reciprocal" tariffs coming into effect.

The South Korean company posted a 10% jump in first-quarter revenue from a year earlier, while its operating profit climbed 1.5%.

Shares of Samsung Electronics traded flat after the results.

Read the full story .

—Dylan Butts, Lee Ying Shan