European stocks nudge higher amid earnings; mining stocks down 2.5%

Christian Klein, CEO at SAP, discusses the firm’s cloud business, incorporation of AI, and his outlook for restructuring operations in 2023.

Europe’s benchmark Stoxx 600 index opened flat on Friday before falling 0.3% in early trade, extending Thursday’s losses, with investors jittery as earnings season gets underway.

Most sectors posted declines, with mining stocks dropping 2.7%.

Germany’s DAX was down 0.4%, France’s CAC 40 down 0.2% and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 down 0.07%.

U.K. retail sales dropped by 0.9% in March, the national statistics agency said Friday. That was down from a 1.1% rise in February.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected a 0.5% fall.

But sales in the three months to March were up by 0.6% from the prior period, the first three-month rise since August 2021.

Non-food stores sales volumes were down by 1.3%, with retailers partially blaming poor weather, while food store volumes were down by 0.7% as shoppers battled supply shortages and eye-watering inflation.

Paul Dales, chief U.K. economist at Capital Economics, said the headline figure “probably isn’t as bad as it looks” because of the weather factor and noted the closely watched GfK survey, also published Friday, which showed a small increase in consumer confidence.

However, he added that higher interest rates meant real consumer spending was more likely to decline this year than rise in 2023.

— Jenni Reid

European markets are set for a muted open on Friday.

The U.K.’s FTSE 100 was last seen opening flat at 7,899.7, according to ig.com data. France’s CAC 40 was set to be 8.7 points higher, at 7,539.3, with Germany’s DAX 6 points lower at 15,786.8. Italy’s MIB was seen opening 17.5 points higher at 27,158.5.

— Jenni Reid

Artificial intelligence is no longer a futuristic fantasy but a reality transforming many industries. From chatbots to content creation, A.I. is making its presence felt in the digital space and beyond.

Ben Rogoff, portfolio manager at Polar Capital, told CNBC the current investment environment seemed like the ‘iPhone moment for the artificial intelligence technology’ sector.

The tech fund manager also told CNBC’s Pro Talks that four large-cap stocks were driving some of the biggest and most tangible advancements in artificial intelligence.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Ganesh Rao

TSMC may be an obvious pick for investors looking for exposure to Asia’s semiconductor industry, but UBS likes one of its lesser-known rivals.

Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Zavier Ong

Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood said Thursday her EV darling Tesla could hit $2,000 in five years on the back of a robotaxi boom.

The innovation investor updated her price target for the Elon Musk company to $2,000 by 2027, a whopping 1,127% increase from Tesla’s Thursday close of $162.99.

“It is one of the most important investment opportunities of our lifetimes,” Wood said of robotaxis. Wood believes the robotaxi opportunity could deliver $8 trillion to $10 trillion in revenue by 2030.

— Yun Li

Total assets in money market funds fell by $68.64 billion in the week ended April 19, according to data from the Investment Company Institute.

It marked the largest dollar outflow from these funds since July 2020, according to the ICI. The outflows come at a time when investors have been parking cash into relatively safe instruments to capture attractive yields. Indeed, even after the outflows, there are still $5.21 trillion in assets in these funds. The Crane 100 Money Fund Index is touting an annualized 7-day current yield of 4.64% as of April 20.

Institutional funds were responsible for the lion’s share of the outflows: $58.92 billion. However, assets declined for retail money market funds to the tune of $9.72 billion.

–Darla Mercado