European Stock Markets Rise Ahead of ECB Decisions, New Record on Wall Street

On European exchanges, stock prices rose on Thursday morning as investors await decisions and messages from the leaders of the European Central Bank (ECB) from the regular meeting.

The STOXX 600 index of leading European stocks was up 0.1 percent at 9:30 AM.

The London FTSE index strengthened by 0.49 percent to 9,270 points, while the Paris CAC rose by 0.27 percent to 7,780 points. The Frankfurt DAX, on the other hand, weakened by 0.05 percent to 23,620 points.

Although no further interest rate cuts are expected, the focus of investors will be on the ECB meeting as new assessments of the economy and inflation in the eurozone will be announced.

Stock prices also rose this morning on most Asian exchanges. The MSCI Asia-Pacific index was up 0.4 percent at 9:30 AM.

Stock prices in India, South Korea, Japan, and Shanghai rose between 0.1 and 1.6 percent, while in Hong Kong and Australia they fell between 0.1 and 0.3 percent.

New records for stock indices in Japan and Taiwan are attributed to the rise in stock prices of companies related to artificial intelligence development.

The growth of the technology sector supports other exchanges in the region, but trading is cautious as there are no news that could stimulate other sectors.

Thus, most exchanges are following yesterday’s rise on Wall Street, where the S&P 500 reached a new record level, as did the Nasdaq index.

The driver of the growth of these indices was a jump in Oracle’s stock price by as much as 36 percent, after the software giant announced that demand for its cloud services is increasing from companies developing artificial intelligence.

Stock prices of chip manufacturers also rose significantly. Broadcom’s stock increased by 10 percent, Nvidia’s by 3.8 percent, and Advanced Micro Devices’ by 2.4 percent.

On Wall Street, a new record for the S&P 500 index

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 index reached a new record level on Wednesday, as did the Nasdaq, thanks to the rise in stock prices of several large technology companies.

The Dow Jones slipped by 0.48 percent to 45,490 points, while the S&P 500 rose by 0.30 percent to 6,532 points, and the Nasdaq index by 0.03 percent to 21,886 points.

In six of the 11 major sectors of the S&P, stock prices fell yesterday, while they rose the most in the technology sector.

Oracle’s stock price jumped by as much as 36 percent after the software giant announced that demand for its cloud services is increasing from companies developing artificial intelligence.

Stock prices of chip manufacturers also rose significantly. Broadcom’s stock increased by 10 percent, Nvidia’s by 3.8 percent, and Advanced Micro Devices’ by 2.4 percent.

Positive market influences also came from data on producer prices, which rose less than expected in August.

Investors are also hoping that the consumer price report, which will be released on Thursday, will show that inflation has not strengthened.

And that means there are fewer obstacles to a reduction in interest rates by the U.S. central bank.

On most European exchanges, stock prices fell yesterday. The London FTSE index weakened by 0.19 percent to 9,225 points, while the Frankfurt DAX fell by 0.36 percent to 23,632 points. The Paris CAC, on the other hand, strengthened by 0.15 percent to 7,761 points.