European Shares Mostly Higher On Fed Rate Cut Hopes

(RTTNews) - European stocks were broadly higher on Thursday as weak U.S. private payrolls data fueled bets on an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve next week.

Ukraine peace talks were also in focus despite inconclusive talks in Moscow. U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff will meet the head of Ukraine's national security council, Rustem Umerov, for talks in Miami today, the White House has confirmed.

President Trump said the talks - also attended by his son-in-law Jared Kushner - were "reasonably good", but it was too soon to say what would happen because "it does take two to tango."

The pan European Stoxx 600 rose 0.4 percent to 578.31 after gaining 0.1 percent on Wednesday.

The German DAX surged 0.8 percent and France's CAC 40 gained 0.4 percent while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was down 0.1 percent.

Finnish telecom company Nokia rose about 1 percent. The company has announced a collaboration with Bharti Airtel to open Airtel's network to developers via Nokia's Network as Code platform.

Future Plc shares soared 11 percent in London. After a difficult 2025 marked by weaker advertising demand and a slowdown in price comparison searches, the specialist media group forecast "modest organic revenue growth" in the year to September 2026.

Vodafone fell about 1 percent after its African unit signed a pact to purchase a controlling stake in Kenyan telecommunications operator Safaricom.

Skanska rose 1.2 percent after the Swedish construction company signed a contract with a repeat client to build a new data center in the USA.

Aurubis, Europe's largest copper producer, added 1.2 percent despite reporting annual earnings below market expectations.