Investing.com - European stock markets closed mostly higher Tuesday, rebounding after the previous session’s tech-led selloff, with investors digesting more earnings ahead of the week’s European Central Bank policy-setting meeting.
The DAX index in Germany gained 0.7% and the FTSE 100 in the UK rose 0.3%. However, the CAC 40 in France fell 0.1%.
The majority of European indices fell Monday after the noted popularity of DeepSeek's discount artificial intelligence model in China rattled investors, who dumped technology shares and questioned the sky-high valuation of AI bellwethers.
AI darling Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) saw nearly $600 billion in value wiped out within a day, its worst ever drop, losing its position as the world’s most valuable company to Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL).
French consumer confidence rises
French consumer confidence rose in January, with data released earlier Tuesday showing an increase to 92, from 89 the prior month.
Additionally, Spain is set to raise its gross domestic product growth target for this year above the current 2.4%, after the economy expanded around 0.7%-0.8% in the fourth quarter.
However, the strength of Spain's economy contrasts with other large economies in the eurozone. In recent days, France and Germany have lowered their GDP growth targets for this year to 0.9% and 0.3% respectively, while Italy expects 1.2% growth.
The European Central Bank concludes its latest policy-setting meeting on Thursday, and is expected to slash rates by a quarter of a percentage point, after having already slashed borrowing costs four times to address the overall weak growth.
Citigroup expects the ECB to reduce interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point at every meeting "until at least the summer".
A total of four drawdowns in 2025 would bring the rate the ECB pays on deposits by eurozone lenders -- which now stands at 3.0% -- to 2% by the end of the year.
The Federal Reserve also meets this week, with the US central bank expected to keep interest rates unchanged at the conclusion of its two-day gathering on Wednesday.
SAP expresses optimism
Investors have more corporate results to digest Tuesday, with the quarterly earnings season kicking into full gear this week.
SAP (ETR:SAPG) stock rose 1% after Europe's largest software maker said it was more optimistic about its financial results this year due to accelerating growth in revenue from cloud computing.
Foxtons (LON:FOXT) gained 4% after the British real estate agent said it posted 2024 revenue and operating profit ahead of market expectations, partly helped by resilience in its lettings business.
Sartorius (ETR:SATG_p) jumped 13% to May highs after the German pharmaceutical equipment supplier reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings as well as strong bioprocess solutions orders.
Siemens (ETR:SIEGn) Energy (ETR:ENR1n) stock rose 5% after the offshore wind turbine maker reported a preliminary first-quarter revenue above market expectations.
Crude rebounds
Despite initially edging higher, oil prices have declined on Tuesday on the back of concerns over increased supplies under President Donald Trump, as well as doubts over long-term demand, particularly from China.
By 11:50 ET, the US crude futures (WTI) declined 0.3% to $72.98 a barrel, while the Brent contract also fell 0.3% to $75.95 a barrel.
Oil prices have slumped some 5% in the past week, weighed by Trump declaring a national energy emergency in order to ramp up US production, while calling on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to increase production.
Markets were also on edge over the president’s plans to impose trade tariffs on major economies, especially China.
China, the world's largest importer of crude oil, reported on Monday an unexpected contraction in manufacturing activity in January, adding to concerns over global crude demand growth.
(Peter Nurse contributed to this article)