European stock markets showed a mixed and generally flat performance in early trading on Wednesday, as investors weighed positive developments in US-China trade negotiations against some underwhelming corporate earnings and awaited key economic data.
While a tentative trade agreement offered a degree of optimism, individual market movements were nuanced.
About 30 minutes into Wednesday’s trading session, the pan-European Stoxx 600 index was seen trading flat, indicating no cohesive directional momentum among individual sectors.
Looking at the major national stock exchanges, France’s CAC 40 emerged as an early front-runner, posting a gain of around 0.3%.
London’s FTSE 100 was last seen trading 0.1% higher, while Germany’s DAX index showed little change from its previous close.
US-China trade talks: a framework for agreement
A significant driver for global market sentiment was the news emerging from high-level trade talks between the United States and China in London.
After a second day of discussions, representatives from both nations announced they had reached an agreement on a framework to ease trade tensions, with the deal now awaiting approval from the leaders of the two countries.
“We have reached a framework to implement the Geneva consensus and the call between the two presidents,” US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters.
A critical component of this latest agreement involves Chinese restrictions on rare-earth exports to the US Lutnick stated that this is a “fundamental part” of the deal and that the US expects the issue “will be resolved in this framework implementation.”
He further indicated that US restrictions on sales of advanced technology to China, imposed in recent weeks, would likely be rolled back as Beijing approves rare-earth exports.
Global markets had a mixed initial reaction to this tentative consensus. Asia-Pacific markets climbed overnight on the apparent breakthrough.
However, US stock futures inched lower, with investors also looking ahead to US May inflation data, which could influence future Federal Reserve policy.
Corporate spotlight: Inditex sales miss
On the corporate front, Zara owner Inditex reported weaker-than-expected quarterly sales on Wednesday.
The Spanish retail giant also flagged a slower start to the summer season compared to last year, citing broader economic uncertainty.
Inditex posted revenues of 8.27 billion euros ($9.44 billion) for its fiscal first quarter (February 1 to April 30), slightly below the 8.39 billion euros forecast by LSEG analysts.
Net income for the quarter came in at 1.3 billion euros, just shy of the 1.32 billion euros analysts had estimated.
In other notable news, tech billionaire Elon Musk stated on Wednesday that he regretted some of the social media posts he made last week during an explosive and highly public dispute with his formerly close ally, US President Donald Trump.
This admission follows a period of escalating tension between the two prominent figures.
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