Europe close: Shares edge higher as ECB hints at smaller interest rate hikes
European shares were mostly higher on Thursday even as disappointing results from Facebook owner Meta weighed on investor sentiment globally.
Offsetting the drag from that US technology giant, the European Central Bank went ahead and raised its main policy rate by 75 basis points to 2.0%, as expected.
However, several economists appeared to glean a hint from ECB chief Christine Lagarde's presser that future rate hikes might be smaller.
Some economists also ventured that the ECB would stop hiking at between 2.75-3.0% as inflation topped out and recession signs started cropping up.
The Stoxx 600 benchmark index drifted 0.03% lower to 410.19 and the Cac-40 gave back 0.51% to 6,244.03, but periphery stocks fared better with the FTSE Mib adding 0.90% to 22,590.41.
Boosting the latter, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Italian government bond lurched lower by 29 basis points to 4.03%.
It was a similar story in Spain where the Ibex traded up 0.64% to 7,921.10.
In the background, Meta shares plunged by a fifth in after-hours trading overnight after the company forecast a weak holiday quarter and significantly more costs next year.
In regional equity news, shares in troubled bank Credit Suisse tumbled 20% as the Swiss lender unveiled a $4bn cash call and plans to axe 9,000 jobs as part of a major overhaul to rectify scandals and mismanagement that have plagued it in recent years.
Shares of Shell gained 5.5%, finishing the session at their best level since August 2019, after it announced a $4bn share buyback and posted better-than-expected third-quarter profits.
Adjusted earnings rose to $9.5bn from $4.1bn in the third quarter a year earlier, but were down from the record $11.5bn posted in the second quarter of the year. Analysts had been expecting net earnings of $9bn.
Shares in Danske Bank popped 12% as investors cheered news that the institution would pay around $2bn in fines to resolve a money-laundering scandal.
It hopes to reach agreement with the US Department of Justice, the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Danish special crime unit by the end of the year after a probe into suspicious cash that passed through its Estonian branch between 2007 and 2015.
Norwegian engineering firm Sweco slumped 5%, despite reporting a rise in third-quarter core earnings.