UTDI United Internet AG

By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch

Europe stocks traded higher on Friday, capping a wild week tied to the U.S.-China trade dispute.

The Stoxx Europe 600 leaped 1.07% to 368.99, in a week that saw the Euro Stoxx 60 volatility index reach its highest levels since January.

Pharmaceuticals including Novartis (NOVN.EB) and banks including HSBC Holdings (HSBA.LN) led the advance.

The German DAX jumped 1.01% to 11527.60 and the French CAC 40 increased 0.99% to 5288.63.

The U.K. FTSE 100 , which didn't start trading for 100 minutes due to a London Stock Exchange glitch (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/london-stock-exchange-outage-keeps-ftse-100-ftse-250-companies-from-trading-2019-08-16), added 0.7% to 7116.73.

What's happening

"The 'risk off, risk on' pendulum swung back and forth as investors grappled with conflicting signals on the U.S.-China trade front, disappointing economic data from China and Germany and depressed oil prices," said Lukman Otunuga, senior research analyst at FXTM, in a note to clients.

Data released this week showed the German economy contracted in the second quarter while China industrial production grew at the slowest rate in 17 years. Meanwhile, data released Thursday showed an encouraging rise in U.S. retail sales.

The U.S. yield curve remained uninverted, with the 2-year yield at 1.56% and the 10-year yield at 1.59%.

Strategists at UBS said the yield curve inversion from earlier in the week was a signal about growth outside the U.S. "Statistically, we find that [German] bunds are 'causing' moves in U.S. Treasuries, rather than the other way around. Substantively, we see few excesses or imbalances in the U.S. economy that may lead to growth collapsing," the strategists wrote.

The yield on the benchmark German 10-year bund was -0.70%, very close to its all-time low of -0.73%.

Movers

IMCD (IMCD.AE) slumped 13% as the Dutch chemicals and food ingredients company reported a 17% rise in operating profit during the first half and reiterated it would grow its operating profit for the whole year.

United Internet (UTDI.XE) shares rose nearly 9% even after it lowered its outlook for the year. Its first-half profit fell after a writedown of a stake in a cable operator.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 16, 2019 05:30 ET (09:30 GMT)

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