By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - European stock markets edged higher Thursday, boosted by strong earnings from German industrial giant Siemens ahead of the release of key U.S. inflation data.
By 3:45 AM ET (0845 GMT), the DAX in Germany traded 0.2% higher, the CAC 40 in France traded 0.1% higher and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 rose 0.1%.
The quarterly earnings season has been the focus of trading in Europe so far Thursday, with Siemens (DE:SIEGn), the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe, leading the way. Its stock soared 7% after it reported a jump in industrial profit in the first quarter of its fiscal year, based on an “extraordinary” surge in orders from its customers.
The banking sector was busy Thursday, with Credit Agricole (PA:CAGR) stock rising 1% and Societe Generale (PA:SOGN) stock rose 3.8% as both French lenders posted strong fourth-quarter numbers, helped by lower pandemic-related charges.
Credit Suisse (SIX:CSGN) bucked the trend, with the Swiss bank’s stock falling 4% after it posted a fourth-quarter net loss of 2 billion Swiss francs ($2.2 billion), hurt by provisions to settle its investment bank's legal costs after a turbulent 2021.
ArcelorMittal (AS:MT) stock fell 4.1% with investors fretting about the world’s largest steelmaker forecasting slower global steel demand growth for this year even as the company reported its biggest annual profit in more than a decade.
Unilever (LON:ULVR) stock fell 2% after the consumer goods giant forecast lower margins this year as it grapples with soaring inflation, while Delivery Hero (DE:DHER) stock slumped 16% after the German online takeaway food company forecast another year of losses after finally breaking even last year.
Still, Thursday gains are relatively small with investors reluctant to push the boat out ahead of the release of the monthly U.S. inflation report later in the day, as this should offer new clues on how aggressively the Federal Reserve will tighten monetary policy this year.
The January U.S. consumer prices release is due at 8:30 AM ET (1330 GMT), with the headline CPI seen rising 0.5% on the month and 7.3% on the year, which would be the highest level in almost 40 years. Analysts warn that the figure continue to be distorted by the weight given to certain items of only limited relevance to living costs, notably used car prices.
Oil prices edged higher, boosted by data from the Energy Information Administration showing that U.S. crude inventories fell by 4.76 million barrels during the week ended Feb. 4, the most for a week since October 2018.
The drawdown was triple that projected by industry analysts and marked the second straight weekly drop in crude stocks.
The crude market has been pressured over the last couple of sessions by the resumption of U.S.-Iran nuclear talks that could result in the Persian Gulf country adding supplies to the global market.
By 3:45 AM ET, U.S. crude futures traded 0.4% higher at $90.02 a barrel, while the Brent contract rose 0.3% to $91.81.
Additionally, gold futures fell 0.2% to $1,832.65/oz, while EUR/USD edged 0.1% higher to 1.1428.