A balcony above the trading floor of the Euronext NV stock exchange in Paris, France, Monday, March 13, 2023.
Nathan Laine Bloomberg Getty Images
LONDON – European markets edged higher on Friday, capping off what was shaping up to be a winning week for global stocks.
Pan-European Stoxx 600 The index was up 0.2% at 8:38 am London time, led by auto stocks, up 1.1%.
The regional benchmark is up more than 2% so far this week, marking its best performance since May 10.
US stocks have also delivered solid gains, with a big boost on Thursday as weekly jobless claims fell and US retail sales data were stronger than forecasts suggested.
That further signals to investors that worries about the US recession, which led to a sharp global sell-off at the start of the month, have been overblown. Along with the ripple effect of Japan’s monetary policy, analysts say part of the volatility can be explained by the historical August trend, when trade tends to be shallower.
Stoxx 600 and Wall Street S&P 500 remain shy of the level they started the month at, but steady gains over the week have recuperated losses from the new rout.
On the Friday data front, UK retail sales showed a rebound from a 0.9% decline in June to 0.5% growth in July, in line with expectations in a Reuters poll. Sales volume rose 1.1% in the three months to July.
Alex Kerr, UK economist at Capital Economics, said in a note on Friday that the rise in retail sales was not grounded, with sectors such as food, clothing and household goods struggling.
“We continue to think that rising real incomes, as inflation falls, means that consumer spending growth will accelerate for the remainder of the year,” Kerr said.
