10 hours ago
European shares edge up as US stalls its Middle East moves
European stocks rebounded, ending a three-day losing streak as concerns over escalating Middle East tensions eased. The STOXX 600 index closed marginally higher, buoyed by hopes of diplomatic negotiations between Iran and European officials. Travel and leisure stocks led the gains, while energy shares lagged.
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European stocks snapped a three-day losing streak and closed higher on Friday, as investors' nerves eased following a stall in U.S. involvement in Middle East pan-European STOXX 600 closed 0.1% Israel and Iran's air conflict entered its second week, European officials worked to bring Tehran back to diplomatic negotiations as Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi arrived in Geneva for White House signalled President Donald Trump will decide within two weeks whether to throw U.S. support behind Israel in the ongoing conflict, a move that buoyed market sentiment and reignited some appetite for risk assets, which had been battered earlier in the week amid uncertainty over the conflict's Friday's modest gains, European stocks logged a second consecutive week of losses, as investors continued to fret over the potential global fallout from unrest in the Middle East."The uncertainty around the conflict means the risk of energy prices being higher," said Franziska Palmas, senior Europe economist at Capital added that higher energy prices could prompt the European Central Bank "to keep rates at their current level rather than cutting them further."With the July 8 U.S. tariff-pause deadline looming, movement on trade deals with Washington has shown little progress, save for a formal agreement reached with London. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen remains hopeful for a broader deal by July BofA Global Research raised its year-end target for the STOXX 600 to 530 from 500 on resilience in global growth following a U.S.-China trade and leisure stocks were up nearly 1%, led by a 6.5% gain in Europe's largest travel operator TUI after Barclays upgraded the stock to "overweight" from "underweight".Energy shares lagged 0.6% as oil prices retreated, though the sector was the week's second-biggest gainer due to Middle East tensions that had boosted crude prices the day, the insurance sector emerged as the top sectoral gainer, up 1.3%.Among other stocks, London's Berkeley was the biggest percentage decliner, down 8.1%. The homebuilder named current finance chief Richard Stearn as its new CEO, but reported an annual pre-tax profit slightly ahead of market Enso jumped 14.7% to the top of the STOXX 600 after the Finnish forestry group announced a strategic review of its Swedish forest assets worth EUR 5.8 billion, including potential separation and public in Sweden and Finland were closed for a public holiday.
