Europe open: Stocks gain as earnings roll in; China trade data and German GDP in focus
European stocks rose in early trade on Thursday as investors sifted through a raft of earnings releases, the latest economic growth figures from Germany and Chinese trade data.
At 0850 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 was up 0.5% to 366.80, Germany's DAX was 0.4% higher at 11,214.07 and France's CAC 40 was 0.7% firmer at 5,107.73.
As market participants awaited news on the latest round of trade talks between the US and China, there was some good news in the form of solid Chinese trade figures.
Data out earlier showed China's exports rose 9.1% in January from a year earlier compared to a 4.4% drop in December, coming in well ahead of expectations for a 3.2% decline. Meanwhile, imports were down 1.5% versus a 7.6% slump in December, beating expectations for a 10% decline.
In European corporate news, French car maker Renault rallied even as it posted a drop in full-year profits and revenue, while Schneider Electric racked up solid gains as the energy company's full-year net profit rose 8.6% to a record €2.3bn.
Commerzbank pushed higher after the German lender said fourth-quarter net profit rose 51%, beating analysts' expectations.
On the downside, Credit Suisse was in the red even as the bank said it swung to a profit last year for the first time since 2014, while Credit Agricole slipped despite posting better-than-expected fourth-quarter net profit.
Aegon fell sharply after reporting an 83% slump in second-half net profit.
On the macro front, figures from Destatis showed that Germany's real GDP was flat quarter-on-quarter in the fourth quarter, compared to a 0.2% drop in the third quarter. This was slightly below consensus expectations for a 0.1% increase.
Meanwhile, the seasonally and working-day adjusted year-over-year rate fell to 0.6% from 1.1% in Q3, missing expectations of 0.7%.
Andrew Kenningham, chief Europe economist at Capital Economics, said: "The fact that GDP was unchanged in Q4 following a 0.2% contraction in Q3, means it is touch-and-go whether Germany was in a technical recession in the second half of last year. Given that on this occasion there were no obvious temporary factors dragging on the economy, this bodes ill for economic growth this year too.
"While the there is no breakdown at this stage, the press release says that the decline was mostly due to weak net exports. However, it also concedes that household consumption increased only ;slightly'. In contrast, fixed investment held up relatively well, particularly in construction. Note that the weakness of the economy in Q4 cannot be attributed to the supposedly-temporary problems in the auto sector given that we already know that vehicle production edged up in the last three months of the year."