On Wednesday, European stocks went up, with retailers leading the way. This happened after Inditex, the big Spanish fashion company that owns Zara, released its second-quarter earnings. Inditex’s shares climbed by 6% because the company reported that its sales were picking up before the fall season, even though its second-quarter sales weren’t as strong as expected.
The overall STOXX 600 index for Europe rose by 0.4%, staying close to its highest point in two weeks.
Shares of Novo Nordisk also increased by nearly 2% after the Danish company, which makes the weight-loss drug Wegovy, announced a plan to restructure and cut about 11.5% of its employees. This move is expected to save the company around $1.26 billion each year as it faces tough competition in the weight-loss drug market.
European technology stocks also had a good day. German software company SAP and Dutch company ASML both saw their shares rise by about 1% each. This was in response to Oracle’s announcement that it expects to receive more than half a trillion dollars in future cloud orders. Oracle’s shares listed in Frankfurt also shot up by 30%.
On the FX front, The euro remained mostly unchanged, trading at $1.17115, after a 0.5% drop in the last session. The British pound was at $1.3534, and the Japanese yen was flat at 147.41 per dollar.
The Australian dollar gained 0.3%, reaching $0.66065, and is close to the seven-week high it hit on Tuesday.
The U.S. dollar index, which compares the dollar to six other major currencies, was stable at 97.834 after a 0.3% gain on Tuesday. So far in 2025, the index is down about 10% because of unpredictable U.S. trade policies and the expectation that interest rates will be cut, which has made the dollar less attractive to investors.
For more on the Euro, read AUD/USD Technical: Further Aussie rally towards major resistance, supported by firmer China core inflation
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