LONDON — European stocks ended Friday's session in the green, marking a positive end to a solid year.
The regional index provisionally finished 2023 up 12.64% on the year. It follows a fall of 12.9% in 2022.
On Friday, the Stoxx ended the day provisionally 0.1% higher, with almost all sectors up amid thin trade. London markets closed early, with the in the green as the dipped.
Spanish pharmaceutical group was the biggest stock mover, climbing around 8.4% after it will sell a 20% stake in Shanghai RAAS, a blood products firm, to China's Haier for approximately $1.8 billion.
Germany's has risen nearly 20% over 2023 despite the country's , while France's and the U.K.'s have gained 16.4% and 3.64%, respectively.
In the U.S., stocks were little changed Friday as index to cap off the rally of the last two months.
Latest data releases, including Thursday's on , continue to suggest U.S. economic growth is slowing without grinding to a halt. Market bets currently place a 72.8% probability on the Federal Reserve beginning rate cuts as soon as March 2024, CME's shows.
In the final readings of the year, U.S. annual headline inflation had slowed to 3.1% in November from 6.4% in January.
That compared with a drop to 2.4% from 8.5% in the euro zone, and to 3.9% from 10.1% in the U.K. — both of which have also of rate cuts next year amid in both economies.
"The apparent loss of U.S. economic momentum in late 2023 suits the view that the full impact of aggressive US Federal Reserve rate hikes may still be in the pipeline," economists at Berenberg said in a note Friday.
"Nevertheless, the Fed remains on track to pull off the usually elusive feat of a soft landing in 2024. The easing of underlying inflation has encouraged bond and equity markets to play the Fed pivot theme," they added, though they do not expect the first cut until May 2024.
U.K. house prices recorded a 1.8% fall in the year to December, according to lender Nationwide, a bigger drop than recent polls suggested but significantly lower than earlier in 2023.
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