2 Mins Ago
High interest rates help Germany’s Commerzbank post best results in 15 years
See Chart…
Commerzbank share price.
Commerzbank on Thursday reported a 55% hike in net profit for 2023, as high interest rates helped the German banking giant report its best results in 15 years.
Net profit for the year beat expectations to come in at 2.2 billion euros ($2.36 billion), up from 1.4 billion euros a year earlier. For the fourth quarter, net profit was 395 million euros, down over 16% on the same quarter the year before, but ahead of consensus estimates published by Commerzbank.
Read the full story here.
— Katrina Bishop
2 Hours Ago
UK economy slipped into technical recession
The U.K. economy slipped into a technical recession at the end of last year — gross domestic product figures showed that the economy contracted by 0.3% in the three months to December 2023.
That was worse than the 0.1% contraction expected by economists.
It followed a 0.1% fall in output during the previous quarter. Two consecutive quarters of contraction are widely viewed to indicate a technical recession.
Sterling lost earlier gains against the dollar after the news.
See Chart…
U.K’s sterling against the U.S. dollar.
2 Hours Ago
Europe stocks to open higher
European stocks were seen opening Thursday higher, according to IG data, with the FTSE 100 up 25 points to 7,569, Germany’s DAX up 43 points to 16,987, and France’s CAC up 21 points to 7,697.
Italy’s MIB was seen 77 points higher at 31,509.
— Jenni Reid
2 Hours Ago
Bitcoin hits over two-year high amid ‘favorable regulatory activity’
The total value invested in bitcoin surpassed $1 trillion on Wednesday reaching an over two-year high following the debut of bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the United States last month.
The price of ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, surpassed $2,700 to reach its highest level since May 2022, with investors expecting the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to greenlight spot ether ETFs this May.
“We have a global convergence of favorable regulatory activity, and what it’s doing is unblocking an enormous amount of institutional capital,” Paul Brody, global blockchain leader at Ernst & Young, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Thursday.
“There’s $200 trillion of institutional capital that hasn’t been able to access these assets previously, and while these inflows aren’t going to happen overnight, we are going to see a steady allocation of resources into them,” he added.
— Dylan Butts
8 Hours Ago
CNBC Pro: ASML and more: BofA just got more bullish on these 3 chip stocks, says AI spending is heating up
European semiconductor equipment stocks are likely to outperform as spending on artificial intelligence chips rises over the next decade, according to Bank of America.
The continent’s chip stocks produce the high-tech machines needed to manufacture the latest generation of chips.
“We raise our [price targets] on our EU Semicaps coverage, which we expect to continue benefiting from investment in AI infrastructure,” BofA analysts said in a note to clients.
The Wall Street bank said its top picks are likely to soar further, thanks to the “scarcity of value in Europe for AI-related stocks.”
CNBC Pro subscribers can read more about their stock picks here.
— Ganesh Rao
8 Hours Ago
CNBC Pro: Morgan Stanley names Asia-Pacific ‘alpha’ stock ideas for February — giving one nearly 80% upside
The performance of major Asia markets has been uneven for the past year.
Investors have been shunning China stocks, while flooding India and Japan markets.
Those interested in stock-picking rather than passive investing can look to the bank’s list of “alpha” stocks that could beat the market.
CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.
— Weizhen Tan