The Albany Gazette - European stocks rise as eurozone dodges recession

Hong Kong and Shanghai indices fell heavily as an order to liquidate indebted property developer Evergrande fanned fears about China's fragile economy.

Wall Street enjoyed new record highs on Monday as investors looked to the start of the Federal Reserve's meeting on US interest rates.

In a busy week for markets, focus also will be on earnings from tech titans Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, Apple and Facebook parent Meta.

The week ends with major US jobs data.

The eurozone economy avoided a technical recession in the second half of 2023 but stagnated in the final three months of the year, official data showed on Tuesday.

The zero-percent figure for the October to December period compared to the previous quarter beat forecasts.

Analysts for Bloomberg and financial data firm FactSet had predicted a contraction of 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter.

"European (stock) markets are pushing higher... as traders overlook an unwelcome rebound in Spanish inflation," noted Joshua Mahony, chief market analyst at Scope Markets.

"Instead, we are seeing markets react to a rather surprising raft of eurozone growth data that has seen stronger-than-expected Spanish, Italian, and eurozone GDP for the fourth quarter."

The singe-currency area's economy has been hit by many factors including higher interest rates, a cost-of-living crisis hitting households' spending and weakening global demand.

In Asia, the dire performance of the Chinese economy and stock markets is putting increasing pressure on officials to come up with a support plan and there is speculation that announcements will come at upcoming Communist Party meetings.

Talk of an interest rate cut is also swirling.

"Market expectation for a rate cut in February is gaining traction, especially after (the central bank's) surprising announcement to cut RRR," said Ming Ming at Citic Securities, referring to a reduction in the proportion of cash banks must keep in reserve, to boost lending.

- Key figures around 1100 GMT -

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.6 percent at 7,678.87 points

Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.5 percent at 7,676.40

Frankfurt - DAX: UP 0.2 percent at 16,970.13

EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.5 percent at 4,662.35

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 0.1 percent at 36,065.86 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 2.3 percent at 15,703.45 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 1.8 percent at 2,830.53 (close)

New York - Dow: UP 0.6 percent at 38,333.45 (close)

Euro/dollar: FLAT at $1.0838 on Monday

Euro/pound: UP at 85.46 pence from 85.24 pence

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2681 from $1.2710

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 147.26 yen from 147.48 yen

West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.3 percent at $77.00 per barrel

Brent North Sea Crude: FLAT at $82.43 per barrel

burs-bcp/bc

(R.White--TAG)