Stocks in Europe were mostly higher on Thursday morning as US President Donald Trump seemed to aim for further de-escalation in the Middle East, while FTSE 250’s Moonpig fell after posting a profit decline.
‘[US President] Trump denied earlier intelligence reports suggesting that the US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites caused only limited damage,’ Swissquote’s Ipek Ozkardeskaya recounted. ‘On the contrary, he claimed the operation was a historic success and even declared the war over ’except that it could maybe restart soon.’
‘Still, the US and Iran are scheduled to meet for diplomatic talks in Iran this weekend, which appears to be a signal that Trump genuinely wants to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East.’
Meanwhile, China on Thursday hosted defence ministers from Iran and Russia for a meeting in its eastern seaside city of Qingdao.
Brent oil was quoted lower at $67.91 a barrel early in London on Thursday from $68.18 late Wednesday.
The FTSE 100 index opened up 10.87 points, 0.1%, at 8,729.62. The FTSE 250 was up 21.87 points, 0.1%, at 21,319.91, and the AIM All-Share was up 0.28 points at 760.73.
The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.1% at 869.74, and the Cboe UK 250 was up 0.1% at 18,831.79, but the Cboe Small Companies was down 0.5% at 17,136.34.
Entain led the FTSE 100, up 2.9%. The betting operator has been raised to ’buy’ by Goldman Sachs, with a price target of 1,020 pence.
Mining stocks also performed well: Anglo American was the second-highest large-cap, up 1.9%, Endeavour Mining rose 1.5%, Rio Tinto gained 1.2%, and Fresnillo was up 1.3%.
Experian led the laggers, down 1.7%.
On the FTSE 250, Inchcape led with a 4.9% rise.
Inchcape released an update reiterating its financial 2025 outlook, saying it expects ‘another year of growth’ and saying its performance has been ‘resilient’ despite mixed market momentum and FX headwinds.
Moonpig lost 9.5%.
In its full-year results, the card company said pretax profit dropped 94% to £3.0 million from £46.4 million the year before. Revenue however rose 2.6% to £350.1 million, and adjusted pretax profit was £67.5 million, up 16%.
Moonpig also declared a final dividend of 2.0 pence per share, bringing the total up to 3.0p from no dividend the year before.
Going forward, Moonpig expects mid-single-digit growth in adjusted Ebitda, and 8% to 12% growth in adjusted earnings per share. It also announced that CEO Nickyl Raithatha is to step down, with a 12-month notice period.
On AIM, Inspired rose 5.9%.
The company has withdrawn its final dividend, after accepting a £183.6 million takeover offer from funds managed or advised by HGGC LLC and affiliates.
Shareholders in Inspired will be entitled to receive 81 pence in cash per share, a 6.0% premium to the closing price of 76.40p on Wednesday.
Meanwhile in politics, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is trying to head off a growing Labour rebellion over the government’s welfare reforms.
Downing Street insiders said talks were taking place with Labour MPs about the legislation after 126 of them publicly backed a move to block the legislation.
The first vote on the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill is due to take place on Tuesday and a concerted effort has been launched by ministers to win round potential rebels.
In European equities on Thursday, the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.3%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was up 0.6%.
Europe’s start-up sector fears that the EU might weaken key digital legislation in exchange for concessions from the US in its ongoing tariff dispute with the EU.
In a letter to the European Commission, seen by dpa on Thursday, digital associations warned against potential compromises on the Digital Markets Act, DMA, which Brussels uses to regulate US tech companies and which was the basis for recently imposed heavy fines on Apple and Meta.
The letter expressed significant concern over reports that the US trade representative had proposed temporarily suspending DMA enforcement of US tech companies as part of a bilateral dialogue with the EU.
The pound was quoted higher at $1.3725 early on Thursday in London, compared to $1.3622 at the equities close on Wednesday. The euro stood at $1.1697, higher against $1.1626. Against the yen, the dollar was trading lower at JP¥144.13 compared to JP¥145.60.
In Asia on Thursday, the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo was up 1.7%. In China, the Shanghai Composite was down 0.1%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was down 0.6%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney closed down 0.1%.
In the US on Wednesday, Wall Street ended mixed, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.3%, the S&P 500 down 0.02 points and the Nasdaq Composite up 0.3%.
The yield on the US 10-year Treasury was quoted at 4.27%, narrowing from 4.32%. The yield on the US 30-year Treasury was quoted at 4.81%, narrowing from 4.86%.
Gold was quoted higher at $3,345.75 an ounce against $3,323.77.
Still to come on Thursday’s economic calendar, there are comments from Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey and other BoE officials.
There is also a slew of US data set for the afternoon, including personal consumption expenditures, jobless claims, Kansas City Fed manufacturing activity, EIA natural gas stocks and GDP.
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