Lucy Harley-McKeown
FTSE 100 LIVE: European markets down and US stocks stage recovery after bumper AI earnings
The FTSE 100 and European stocks were in the red on Friday, with major indexes looking to a week of losses. Meanwhile, US stocks were upbeat following a day of selling and US indexes still look set to close the week lower overall as caution takes hold over the Federal Reserve's potential interest rate path.
The FTSE (^FTSE) had fallen 15 points, or 0.2% by the closing bell, while Germany's DAX (^GDAXI) declined 0.2% and the CAC (^FCHI) in Paris dropped 0.1%.
The Dow (^DJI) was 0.8% higher by 4.30pm in London, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 0.4% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq (^IXIC) gained 1.1%.
The moves come following a Wall Street selloff on Thursday, as caution has taken hold over expectations of an interest rate cut.
The selloff came in spite of a bumper report by AI darling Nvidia, whose stock price topped $1,000 for the first time on Thursday.
Earlier on Friday, UK retail sales data showed a drop in buying volume of 2.3% in April 2024, following a fall of 0.2% in March 2024 (revised from 0.0%). This was the biggest decrease in retail sales in four months.
Retailers chalked the fall up to poor footfall and wet weather in April.
Food store sales volumes were down for the third month in a row, mainly due to supermarkets, and the hardest hit vertical was fashion, which was down 10%.
"For consumers overall, we know from our consumer sentiment survey that household finances have already benefited from lower grocery price inflation and higher wages and the national insurance cuts earlier in the year," said Lisa Hooker, industry leader for consumer markets at PWC. "While the effect will be magnified in April’s pay packets, they have also had to contend with April price increases in areas such as mobile phone, TV subscriptions, and hospitality and leisure."
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