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Blue chip stock indices were up in London, Paris and Frankfurt on Thursday morning, while China announced that a delegation will visit Washington for trade talks this week. ‘Today brings the latest US GDP update, and tomorrow the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge,’ noted Swissquote’s Ipek Ozkardeskaya. ‘With Nvidia earnings behind us, those numbers could take centre stage.’ The FTSE 100 index opened up 9.31 points, 0.1%, at 9,264.81. The FTSE 250 was up 16.38 points, 0.1%, at 21,821.41, and the AIM All-Share was up 0.55 points, 0.1%, at 762.92. The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.1% at 929.38, the Cboe UK 250 was up 0.2% at 19,154.65, and the Cboe Small Companies was up 0.1% at 17,225.11. On the FTSE 250, Drax fell 9.0%. The Yorkshire, England-based power generator said the UK’s financial regulator has started a probe covering the period January 2022 to March 2024. The FCA’s move follows claims from Drax’s former top lobbyist in March that accused the company of ‘misleading the public, government and its regulator’ over its sourcing of wood for biomass pellets, during a claim for unfair dismissal at an employment tribunal, the Financial Times reports. On AIM, Tungsten West led with a 42% surge. The tungsten and tin miner has received a non-binding letter of interest from the Export-Import Bank of the US, that country’s official export credit agency. ‘The contemplated [up to $95 million] funding package would form a significant part of the debt financing required to bring [the Hemerdon mine] back into production,’ Tungsten West said. In European equities on Thursday, the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.7%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was up 0.6%. ‘In Europe, French political shenanigans remain in focus...[this] hits markets directly because it ties into the country’s rising debt,’ Ozkardeskaya noted. ‘Opposition parties are blocking Francois Bayrou’s plan to rein in the deficit. That pushed the 10-year French-German sovereign bond spread above 80bp, the highest since January. Some warn it could widen to 100bp if the French government collapses, along with hopes of narrowing the deficit. ‘The widening spread is likely to cap the euro’s upside against a broadly softer US dollar. In the end, it may come down to which currency looks less appealing amid rising debt concerns. Right now, the US looks more troubling.’ Speaking of currencies, the pound was quoted higher at $1.3490 early on Thursday in London, compared to $1.3469 at the equities close on Wednesday. The euro stood at $1.1639, higher against $1.1606. Against the yen, the dollar was trading lower at JP¥147.24 compared to JP¥147.73. In Asia on Thursday, the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo was up 0.7%. In China, the Shanghai Composite was up 1.1%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was down 0.8%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney closed up 0.2%. A top Chinese official will lead a delegation to Washington for trade talks this week, Beijing said on Thursday. Li Chenggang, China’s International Trade Representative and vice minister of commerce, ‘will travel to Washington to meet with relevant US officials’, commerce ministry spokeswoman He Yongqian said. She said China was willing to work with the US to ‘resolve issues through equal dialogue and consultation’. Li’s trip to Washington comes days after US President Donald Trump said he expects to visit China this year or soon after. In the US on Wednesday, Wall Street ended higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.3%, the S&P 500 up 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite up 0.2%. President Donald Trump’s administration moved Thursday to impose stricter limits on how long foreign students and journalists can stay in the US. The former would be limited to stays of four years, and the latter to 240 days. ‘For too long, past administrations have allowed foreign students and other visa holders to remain in the US virtually indefinitely, posing safety risks, costing untold amount of taxpayer dollars and disadvantaging US citizens,’ the Department of Homeland Security said in a press statement. The department did not explain how US citizens and taxpayers were hurt by international students, who according to Commerce Department statistics contributed more than $50 billion to the US economy in 2023. Nvidia lost 3.1% after hours in New York. On Nvidia’s interim results, released after the close on Wednesday, Ozkardeskaya said ‘the numbers were, again, very impressive’ to the point that Nvidia ‘has the luxury of ignoring’ its ‘complicated’ outlook in China. ‘Still, [the figures] weren’t as gigantic as the most bullish estimates,’ she added. ‘Nvidia’s revenue grew by 56% YoY last quarter, but the growth rate especially in data centres slowed sequentially...The rising concern that Nvidia’s earnings growth is slowing hints at a potential saturation point in AI-related holdings and the risk of a correction.’ The yield on the US 10-year Treasury was quoted at 4.22%, narrowing from 4.26%. The yield on the US 30-year Treasury was quoted at 4.89%, narrowing from 4.91%. Brent oil was quoted lower at $67.17 a barrel early in London on Thursday, from $67.55 late Wednesday. Gold was quoted higher at $3,394.90 an ounce against $3,387.91. Still to come on Thursday’s economic calendar, the busy US data docket includes jobless claims, natural gas stocks, and comments from Fed Governor Christopher Waller. Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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