European stocks close up at 1-month high as U.S. inflation paints mixed picture

LONDON — European stocks were buoyant Friday, closing higher as investors assessed fresh U.S. inflation data. The regional Stoxx 600 index provisionally ended the day up 0.97%, with a third consecutive positive session taking it to its highest level since June 12. Telecom stocks rose 0.59% with Ericsson among the top gainers, initially rising more than 8% before cooling. The company reported a smaller second-quarter revenue decline than analysts expected. Meanwhile, technology stocks reversed earlier losses to close 1.73% higher. It follows a choppy U.S. session in which investors rotated out of the “Magnificent Seven” into the rest of the market. Reaction to the historic French and U.K. elections dominated the start of the week, but attention has moved to a flurry of inflation data. The U.S. producer price index on Friday came in at 2.6% annually and 0.2% month-on-month, with the latter slightly ahead of expectations. However, economists tend to give more prominence to the consumer price index, which in Thursday’s reading for June declined more than forecast to 3% annually, down from 3.3% in May. Combined with “modestly dovish” comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell earlier in the week, the inflation print left money markets pricing in a more than 90% chance of a September interest rate cut from the world’s biggest central bank, with another before the end of the year. “The evidence increasingly favors the 8 [Fed] officials who penciled in two rate cuts this year, versus the 11 at one-or-none,” economists at BNP Paribas said in a Friday note. Second-quarter earnings season is meanwhile kicking into gear. Along with Ericsson’s results, Norwegian Air reported better-than-expected profit for the period, according to Reuters. Stateside, several financial services giants reported before the bell, with JPMorgan beating estimates as Wells Fargo missed. U.S. stocks were higher on Friday after the S&P 500 suffered its worst session since April on Thursday. In Asia-Pacific, markets finished mixed — with the most action stemming from Japan, where the Nikkei 225 retreated from an all-time high to fall 2.3%.