European stocks recovered on Thursday, helped by rising prices for oil, gold, and silver.
This positive turn comes after a bad day on Wednesday caused by weak earnings from luxury brands. Nervous investors are buying gold and silver to keep their money safe, which has pushed metal prices up and boosted the stock prices of mining companies.
Energy companies are also doing well because oil prices are rising on fears that the US might attack Iran.
Meanwhile, market participants are busy analyzing a flood of company financial reports. They are watching US tech giants for news on Artificial Intelligence and checking European companies to see if they are staying healthy despite global trade conflicts.
However, some major German companies struggled; software giant SAP saw its stock plunge after reporting only average sales, and Deutsche Bank shares fell despite announcing its highest profits in years.
This dragged down the German DAX Index, which is also suffering because the government admitted the economy is growing slower than expected.
On the FX front, the US dollar remained shaky on Thursday as investors continued to worry about American economic policies and global politics.
Earlier in the week, the dollar crashed to a four-year low after President Trump appeared unconcerned about its weakness, though it stabilized slightly after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent assured the market that the US still wants a strong currency.
Currently, the dollar is trading very close to those recent lows.
Meanwhile, the Euro has dropped back slightly below $1.20, as European banking officials are concerned that if their currency gets too strong, it could hurt their economy.
In other currencies, the British Pound is hovering near a four-and-a-half-year high, and the Australian dollar hit a three-year peak because investors expect interest rates there to rise next week.
Currency Power Balance
