In Europe, the stock markets opened on Thursday with mixed results. The Euro Stoxx 600 general index was down 0.3 percent, while London’s FTSE 100 index was up 0.5 percent and Germany’s DAX index was down 0.4 percent. Stockholm’s OMXS30 index also saw a decline of 0.3 percent.
Several large European companies, including Deutsche Bank, Barclays, Nestle, and Airbus, were gearing up to release their earnings reports on Thursday. Deutsche Bank reported a profit increase of 1.275 billion euros in the first quarter, which was a 10 percent rise compared to the previous year. Analysts had predicted a result of 1.23 billion euros, but the company’s net sales rose by only 1 percent year-on-year to 7.8 billion euros, slightly below the forecast of 7.73 billion euros.
Barclays also exceeded analysts’ expectations with a first-quarter profit fall to £1.55 billion pounds, which was down from £1.78 billion pounds a year ago and above the expected operating profit of £1.29 billion. Meanwhile, Nestle reported a decline in revenue from a year ago by 5.9 percent to CHF 22.1 billion (Swiss franc), which fell short of analysts’ forecasts by CHF 344 million (Swiss franc).
On other news, British mining giant Anglo American announced that Australian competitor BHP had made an offer to purchase it for £31