British economy. FTSE100; Income

Paul Kildemo, CFO of the Norwegian aluminum and renewable energy company, discusses its performance and the global aluminum market.

Commerzbank on Thursday reported a 55% rise in net profit for 2023 as Germany’s big bank reported its best performance in 15 years due to high interest rates.

Net profit for the year exceeded expectations, coming in at 2.2 billion euros ($2.36 billion), up from 1.4 billion euros in the same period last year. Net profit for the fourth quarter was 395 million euros, down more than 16% year-on-year, but ahead of Commerzbank’s consensus forecast.

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— Katrina Bishop

The UK economy entered a technical recession late last year, with gross domestic product (GDP) statistics showing the economy contracted by 0.3% in the three months to December 2023.

This was worse than the 0.1% contraction expected by economists.

This followed a 0.1% decline in production in the previous quarter. Two consecutive quarters of negative growth are widely seen as signaling a technical recession.

Following the news, the pound lost some of its gains against the dollar.

European stocks opened higher on Thursday, with the FTSE 100 index up 25 points to 7,569, Germany’s DAX up 43 points to 16,987 and France’s CAC up 21 points to 7,697, according to IG data.

Italy’s MIB was 77 points higher at 31,509 points.

— Jenny Reid

Japan’s economy unexpectedly contracted in the final quarter of 2023, according to government data.

Provisional gross domestic product (GDP) fell 0.4% year-on-year in the fourth quarter, after a revised 3.3% decline in the July-September period.

This was also significantly lower than the 1.4% growth forecast in a Reuters poll.

Japan also decreased by 0.1% quarter-over-quarter in the third quarter, after contracting by a revised 0.8% from the second quarter.

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— Shreyasi Sanyal, Clement Tan

On Wednesday, total investment in Bitcoin exceeded $1 trillion, reaching its highest level in more than two years since the debut of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the United States last month.

The price of Ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, soars above $2,700, the highest since May 2022, as investors hope the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will green light Spot Ether ETF in May of this year. I expect it to come out.

“We’re bringing together positive regulatory action globally, and it’s going to be “This is unblocking a huge amount of institutional capital.”

He added: “There’s $200 trillion of institutional capital that hasn’t had access to these assets before, and while these inflows aren’t going to happen overnight, we’re going to see a steady allocation of resources there.” he added.

— Dylan Butts

European semiconductor equipment stocks are likely to outperform as spending on artificial intelligence chips increases over the next decade, according to Bank of America.

The continent’s chip stocks produce the high-tech machinery needed to manufacture the latest generation of chips.

“we, [price targets] “We expect EU Semicaps coverage to continue to benefit from investments in AI infrastructure,” BofA analysts said in a client note.

The Wall Street bank said top stocks are likely to rise even higher thanks to the “undervalued value of AI stocks in Europe.”

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more about stock picks here.

— Ganesh Rao

Over the past year, the performance of major Asian markets has been mixed.

Investors are shunning Chinese stocks and flooding into Indian and Japanese markets.

Those interested in stock picking rather than passive investing can turn to a list of bank “alpha” stocks that have the potential to beat the market.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Tan Weizhen