Stocks Pulled Higher By Trump's Double Boost

Wednesday,   13-Feb-2019   04:02 PM (IST)

Stock markets in Europe are following the U.S. and Asia higher after comments from U.S. President Donald Trump gave cause for optimism on two grounds. Trump indicated Tuesday that not only is it unlikely that the federal government will shut down again, but that he may also push back a March 1 deadline for imposing new tariffs on Chinese imports if he sees enough progress in talks on China’s trade practices. By 04:05 AM ET (0905 GMT), the benchmark Stoxx 50 was up 0.4% at 3,202.25. Germany's Dax index was up 0.5% at 11,175.45, while the U.K. FTSE 100 was up 0.4% at 7,164.41. Markets registered broad gains across the region, with resource companies doing well as traders revised up their expectations for Chinese commodities demand. Miners Antofagasta, BHP Billiton and Glencore all added over 1.2% in London.Asset manager Amundi stood out in Paris, rising 4.9% after reaffirming its profit target for 2019 despite a torrid final quarter to 2018 in which its assets under management fell 3% to 1.4 trillion euros ($1.6 trillion). Another big winner was Dutch brewer Heineken, which rose 5% after a strong fourth quarter helped by sales of its alcohol-free brew 0.0. The stock has now risen 13% in the last three weeks. Across town in Amsterdam, though, investors in ABN AMRO were needing something stronger than 0.0 to recover from a shocking fourth quarter hit by loan impairments and rising costs. The bank's earnings fell 42% in the fourth quarter to 316 million euros.