Europe stocks open in the green to extend record highs; traders digest dovish ECB messaging

Danish renewables giant Orsted, the world’s largest offshore wind developer, announced on Friday that current CEO Mads Nipper will step down from Feb. 1 and be replaced by Deputy CEO and Chief Commercial Officer Rasmus Errboe.

In a statement, Lene Skole, chair of Orsted’s board of directors, said the renewable energy market had “fundamentally changed” over the past four years.

“The impacts on our business of the increasingly challenging situation in the offshore wind industry, ranging from supply chain bottlenecks, interest rate increases, to a changing regulatory landscape, mean that our focus has shifted,” Skole said.

“Therefore, the board has today agreed with Mads Nipper that it’s the right time for him to step down and the board has appointed Rasmus Errboe to take over as CEO,” she added.

It comes shortly after Orsted announced a roughly $1.7 billion impairment charge on U.S. projects. Shares of the company were last seen trading 0.3% higher.

— Sam Meredith

French inflation came in at 1.8% in January on a preliminary basis, steady on the previous month, statistics agency Insee reported Friday.

Economists polled by Reuters expected a reading of 1.9%. The figure is adjusted for comparison with other euro zone countries.

National German inflation figures are due at 2 p.m. CET.

— Jenni Reid

The number of employed people in Germany held steady month on month in December, statistics agency Destatis said Friday, and was down 0.1% from a year earlier.

The rate of unemployment increased to 3.2% from 2.9% in December 2023.

Destatis also announced retail sales fell by 1.6% on the previous month, significantly more than the 0.2% forecast by economists in a Reuters poll.

Figures published Thursday showed German gross domestic product declined 0.2% in the final quarter of the year amid continuing weakness in its industrial sector, confirming the second consecutive annual contraction for the euro zone’s largest economy.

— Jenni Reid

Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis on Friday reported better-than-expected sales in the fourth quarter, but falling short of its own guidance over the full-year stretch.

Fourth-quarter net sales rose 16% on a constant currency basis to $13.2 billion, compared to the $12.795 billion estimated by analysts in an LSEG poll.

Quarterly adjusted core operating income came in at $4.86 billion versus the $4.23 billion expected.

Read the full story here.

— Karen Gilchrist

The U.K.’s FTSE 100 index is set to open around 9 points higher on Friday at 8,661 points, according to IG data.

However, other bourses headed for declines, with Germany’s DAX seen down 30 points at 21,703 points, France’s CAC 40 down 11 points at 7939.7 points, and Italy’s MIB lower by 23.5 points at 36,619 points.

— Jenni Reid

Gold futures notched a new all-time high as investors assessed the latest GDP data from the U.S.

Gold futures on the New York Mercantile exchange were trading at $2,852.5 per ounce.

“Today’s leg higher can be explained by the release of the fourth quarter US GDP growth data, which slowed more than expected,” said Trevor Yates, senior investment analyst at Global X ETFs.

Yates expects that the slower-than-expected GDP data could lead the Fed to be “increasingly dovish, letting inflation run hotter for longer and therefore pushing real rates lower.”

Gold prices tend to share an inverse relationship with interest rates.

— Lee Ying Shan

The race to invest in artificial intelligence assets exacerbated Monday’s DeepSeek fallout, according to Bank of America.

“Funds piled into AI stocks last year, likely contributing to the outsized reactions we saw in response to DeepSeek,” wrote strategist Savita Subramanian. “AI/tech companies with the biggest increase in ownership breadth over the last year were hit hardest by the headline.”

Specifically, Subramanian pointed to semiconductor manufacturer Broadcom as an example.

“AVGO, which plummeted 17% on Monday, tops our list of stocks with the biggest increases in ownership breadth last year: 56% of US large cap funds owned the stock at the end of 2024 vs. just 38% at the end of 2023,” she wrote.

— Lisa Kailai Han

The U.S. dollar rose against other currencies Thursday afternoon after President Trump said he would impose a 25% tariff on Mexico and Canada.

The ICE U.S. Dollar Index turned positive on the day after the comments, trading at 108.07. The index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, was trading near 107.76 before the remarks.

The dollar also rose against the Canadian dollar and Mexican peso individually.

— Jesse Pound