Finance

Interrogating a fairy tale is not usually the best use of an investor’s time. But there may be an exception. The internal logic of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”, and the idea of whether the economy can be “just right” for financial markets, merits some inspection.Earlier this year, the prospect of a seemingly inevitable American recession—the result of rising interest rates—peppered conversations across the financial world. Now, with inflation falling rapidly, economic growth looking strong and the Federal Reserve at least slowing the pace of interest-rate rises, talk is of a “Goldilocks” situation: an economy that is neither too hot (with surging inflation) nor too cold (with unpleasantly high unemployment). As the picture has grown brighter, yields on American government bonds have ticked ever higher. The yield on ten-year Treasuries is now 4.2%, up from 3.8% at the beginning of the year. Real yields, adjusted for inflation expectations, are at their highest since 2009.They are unlikely to return to earth any time soon. On top of buoyant growth figures—one closely followed estimate suggests that the American economy may be growing at nearly 6%—underlying supply and demand also point upwards. The government will run a budget deficit of around 6% of gdp this year, a figure that is expected to grow over the coming years. Meanwhile, the Fed has allowed around $765bn of Treasuries on its balance-sheet to mature without replacement since last summer.Such good economic news has less rosy implications for the financial outlook than might be expected. Indeed, various markets are already being squeezed by rising yields in a manner that threatens financial stability. Sky-high bond yields mean considerable financial distress is baked in, even if it is not yet visible. And the threat is growing with every strong piece of economic data. Take commercial property. American office-vacancy rates reached 16.4% in the middle of the year, according to Colliers, an estate agency, above the previous record set after the global financial crisis of 2007-09. The combination of entrenched work-from-home habits and rising interest rates has been brutal for owners of commercial property. Capital Economics, a research firm, expects another 15% decline in prices by the end of 2024, and for the west coast to be hit particularly hard.The situation faced by commercial-property owners may deteriorate even if the economy further improves. One or two extra percentage points of growth will bring back few tenants. But the resulting increase in interest rates will put pressure on businesses unable to refinance the debt they accumulated at low rates in the covid-19 pandemic. Newmark, a property-services firm, identifies a maturity wall of $626bn in troubled commercial-property debt (where the senior debt of the borrower is worth 80% or more of the value of the property) that will come due between 2023 and 2025. Without a let-up in the bond market, plenty of companies will smash into the wall.Problems in commercial property could spread. Many American lenders have extended credit to the industry. In early August Moody’s downgraded ten small and mid-sized institutions and placed several larger ones on watch for downgrades. Banks with under $10bn in assets have exposure to commercial real estate worth 279% of their equity cushions, the rating agency noted, compared with 51% for those with over $250bn.The problems that felled Silicon Valley Bank, First Republic Bank and Signature Bank in March and April have not gone away, either. Deposits across the industry have barely recovered since their tumble in the spring, up by 0.02% a week on average over the past four months, compared with 0.13% average weekly growth over the past four decades. The allure of the bond market, where high yields offer an alternative to low-interest bank accounts, means the pressure is hardly letting up.For less leveraged firms, workers and stock investors, the economic porridge seems to be at just the right temperature. Even in the residential property market, which provided the spark for the global financial crisis, owners have largely shrugged off the Fed’s rapid interest-rate increases. But the parts of the American market most vulnerable to rising refinancing costs are faced with an unappetisingly cold bowl of porridge. A Goldilocks outcome for some is a bearish nightmare for others. If Treasury yields stay high, it could become increasingly hard to keep the two realities separate. ■ More

Safra Catz, CEO of Oracle Corporation, rings the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., July 12, 2023. 
Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters

Check out the companies making headlines before the bell.
Oracle — The software giant rose 2.7% after UBS upgraded Oracle to a buy from neutral, saying that shares could rally another 20% due to artificial intelligence-related tailwinds.

AT&T, Verizon — AT&T and Verizon rose about 1.6% each after Citi upgraded the telecommunication companies to buy, citing a stabilizing competitive wireless environment. The firm also said that their current valuations may be over discounting remediation costs related to lead-covered cables.
Best Buy — Best Buy rose about 1.3% after topping Wall Street’s fiscal second-quarter expectations on the top and bottom lines. The retailer reported adjusted earnings of $1.22 a share, ahead of the $1.06 expected by analysts polled by Refinitiv. Revenues came in at $9.58 billion, versus the $9.52 billion anticipated. Best Buy also trimmed its full-year revenue outlook.
Big Lots — Shares of the home discount retailer surged 14% after posting a smaller-than-expected loss. Big Lots reported a loss of $3.24 per share, versus the $4.11-loss per expected by analysts polled by FactSet. Revenue came in at $1.14 billion, ahead of the $1.10 billion anticipated.
PDD Holdings — U.S.-listed shares of the Chinese e-commerce company popped nearly 14% after PDD reported second-quarter earnings that surpasses Wall Street’s expectations. PDD also said it saw a “positive shift in consumer sentiment” during the second quarter.
3M – Shares of the industrial products maker were higher by less than 1% in early morning trading after the company agreed to pay more than $6 billion to settle lawsuits by current and former U.S. military service members over defective combat earplugs.

Heico — The engine and aircraft part manufacturer lost more than 5% even after topping fiscal third-quarter revenue expectations. Heico reported revenue of $723 million for the previous quarter, ahead of the $702 million expected by analysts polled by Refinitiv. Heico did report a decline in operating margins to 20.7% from 22.6% a year ago.
Nio — Nio’s stock lost more than 6% before the bell after the Chinese electric vehicle company reported a wider-than-expected loss quarterly loss. Deliveries also declined from the year-ago period.
J.M. Smucker — Shares of the snack food company rose more than 2% after J.M. Smucker’s fiscal first-quarter earnings topped expectations. The company reported $2.21 in adjusted earnings per share, while analysts were looking for $2.02 per share, according to FactSet’s StreetAccount. J.M. Smucker’s revenue of $1.81 billion did come in under estimates of $1.84 billion, but the company raised its earnings guidance.
BYD — The Chinese automaker’s U.S.-traded shares rose more than 2% Tuesday premarket, a day after it announced a 204.68% jump in net profit for the first half of 2023.
Toyota Motor — U.S.-listed shares of Toyota Motor lost about 1% after the automaker halted production at its assembly plants in Japan due to a system malfunction.
— CNBC’s Hakyung Kim, Tanaya Macheel and Jesse Pound contributed reporting More

They say love doesn’t cost a thing.
But that certainly isn’t true of weddings.

In 2022, couples in the United States spent, on average, nearly $30,000 to get married, according to a report from the wedding website The Knot.
But it wasn’t always this way. In the 1950s, the “Complete Guide to Wedding Etiquette” advised couples to earmark £30 ($38, or $482 when adjusted for inflation) for a reception that included the price of alcohol, according to the BBC.
In fact, it’s possible to tie the knot for even less today.

What a $15 wedding gets you

A Las Vegas venue, called the Chapel of the Flowers, is charging just $15 for a wedding package that includes:

An on-site ceremony
A 10-minute photoshoot and five 4×6 photographs
A wedding bouquet and boutonniere
A live broadcast of the ceremony

The package price — which is normally $500 — is what couples paid to get married in the chapel in 1953, said Cynthia Sharpe, the venue’s director of storytelling.

A picture taken in 1953 of a sign outside the Chapel of the Flowers promoting its $15 wedding packages.
Source: The Chapel of Flowers

“Chapel of the Flowers wants to give back and thank all of the amazing couples who have been a part of making Las Vegas the Wedding Capital of the World,” she said, referencing the city’s trademarked name.
The discounted wedding package is part of a celebration commemorating 70 years since Las Vegas was first given that moniker, according to a campaign promoting Las Vegas as the “Wedding Capital of the World.”
The package is available to 70 couples on a first-come-first-serve basis, and does not include the minister’s fee, which is $70. As of today, all packages are still available, Sharpe told CNBC.
According to the U.S. News & World Report, Nevada had the highest marriage rate in the U.S. in 2021. Couples can obtain a license and get married in the same day.

Other inexpensive options

Other venues in Las Vegas are also discounting wedding packages, according to the campaign.
Couples can have an Elvis-themed wedding at The Little Neon Chapel for $470 until Sept. 30, which comes with an ordained minister dressed as Elvis, photos and room for 10 guests.

An Elvis impersonator performs a remote vow renewal ceremony during the pandemic at Graceland Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Ethan Miller | Getty Images News | Getty Images

For $700, couples can exchange vows 900 feet above the city’s famous Strip atop The Strat Hotel, Casino & Tower, the tallest structure in Las Vegas. The package, which comes with a Champagne toast for the couple and 15 guests, is available through Dec. 30.

The danger of wedding debt

A 2019 report by the financial services company LendingTree estimates 45% of newlyweds incur debt to pay for their weddings.
Furthermore, nearly half of those with wedding debt said money issues led them to consider divorce, according to the survey. Only 9% of couples without wedding debt said the same, the report showed.

Source: LendingTree

The survey also asked which wedding expense they deemed the most “worth it.” The most popular response didn’t concern the wedding at all — it was the honeymoon.
LendingTree’s survey included 506 Americans, aged 18 to 53, that had been married in the previous two years. More

Boston Scientific Corp.
Chitose Suzuki

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.
RPT Realty — RPT Realty shares surged 17% after Kimco Realty, an operator of open-air shopping centers, said it would acquire the real estate investment trust in a roughly $2 billion all-stock deal. Kimco CEO Conor Flynn said, “Approximately 70% of RPT’s portfolio aligns with our key strategic markets.” The deal is set to close in early 2024.

Mister Car Wash — The car wash stock advanced 6.1% on the back of an upgrade to overweight from neutral by Piper Sandler. The firm said the company has potential for growth that investors are overlooking.
Boston Scientific — The medical device maker jumped nearly 6% after Boston Scientific announced positive results Sunday for its treatment for patients with atrial fibrillation, or abnormal heartbeats.
CrowdStrike — CrowdStrike fell 3.7% after Morgan Stanley downgraded shares to equal weight from an overweight rating, citing caution and concerns of potentially slowing revenue growth ahead of the software company’s upcoming earnings report.
3M — The industrial stock jumped 5.2% after Bloomberg reported that 3M had reached a tentative deal to settle lawsuits over its combat ear plugs. The deal would cost 3M more than $5.5 billion, according to the report, which cited people familiar with the arrangement.
Akero Therapeutics — Akero Therapeutics added 4.2% in midday trading. UBS initiated coverage of Akero with a buy rating, saying the biotech company’s treatment for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis could tap into an underappreciated market opportunity.

Alibaba Group, JD.com — Alibaba and JD.com each added more than 2% after the Chinese government announced measures to boost its stock market, including reducing a tax on trading.
Xpeng — Shares of the Chinese electric car company jumped 5.3% after the firm said it is buying Didi’s smart electric car development business in an exchange of shares worth $744 million. The Chinese ride-hailing company will become a strategic shareholder of Xpeng. Meanwhile, Xpeng said it plans to develop an electric car for launch next year under a new mass market brand.
UGI — Shares of the natural gas and propane distributor rose 1.8% Monday after Wells Fargo analyst Sarah Akers upgraded the company to overweight from equal weight. The firm also lowered its price target on UGI due to structural headwinds but said the stock has fallen far enough that it offers a “sufficiently attractive” valuation.
Micron Technology — Stocks tied to the semiconductor industry rose as a group Monday. Shares of Micron Technology and Marvell Technology added 2.5% and 3.1, respectively. NXP Semiconductors rose 1.5%.
— CNBC’s Alexander Harring, Hakyung Kim, Yun Li, Jesse Pound, Pia Singh and Samantha Subin contributed reporting. More

Just one car model — the Mitsubishi Mirage — had an average new-vehicle transaction price below $20,000 in July 2023, according to Kelley Blue Book.
Automakers are partly responding to preferences of consumers, who seem less interested in a car’s base model and instead opt for those with more features, experts said.
Consumers can take a few general steps to save money at the dealership.

Hero Images | Getty Images

It’s getting harder to find new, cheap cars, according to auto experts.
Consider this: In July, just one car model — the Mitsubishi Mirage — had an average new-vehicle transaction price below $20,000, according to Kelley Blue Book data. By comparison, there were a dozen vehicles that met that pricing criteria five years ago.

The $20,000-or-below barometer is a sort of unofficial price threshold for an affordable new car, said Brian Moody, executive editor for Kelley Blue Book.
“There aren’t as many inexpensive new cars as there used to be,” Moody said.

More from Your Money:

Here’s a look at more stories on how to manage, grow and protect your money for the years ahead.

Transaction price doesn’t tell the full story, of course, experts said. That price records what the average buyer pays — a variable that depends on factors such as markups and promotions by car dealers and any add-ons selected by buyers at the time of purchase.
Manufacturers such as Kia, Hyundai and Nissan — in addition to Mitsubishi — currently sell cars whose base models carry a sticker price below $20,000, Moody said.
But this list has gotten smaller over the past five or so years, said Tom McParland, owner of Automatch Consulting, a car-buying service for consumers.

“Whether you’re buying new or used, that kind of affordable segment — sub-$20,000 — is challenging,” he said.

‘Americans don’t like not having features’

Consumers were able to find entry-level vehicles with a $15,000 starting price as recently as a few years ago, said Paul Waatti, an industry analyst at market research firm AutoPacific.
The dearth of options today is due to a multitude of factors, experts said. 
Among them is consumer preferences — people tend to want models with more features, Waatti said.
“Culturally, Americans don’t like not having features in their car,” such as automatic climate control, a car play screen and parking sensors, said Joseph Yoon, a consumer insights analyst at car website Edmunds.
Auto manufacturers know this to be true and use it to their advantage in marketing, Waatti said.
“Automakers obviously want to be able to tell that they’re offering an affordable vehicle and they can do that in messaging,” he added. “But when it comes down to it, they’re not building many of those lower-price models.” 

Instead, automakers will make more of the higher-end models with features that consumers want, added Yoon.
In fact, car sales in the luxury market segment have increased, Moody said. They now account for about 20% of total new car sales, up from roughly 10% to 13% before the Covid-19 pandemic, he said.
Five years ago, there were 12 vehicles selling for an average price of more than $100,000. Today, there are 32 vehicles, according to Kelley Blue Book data. Both tallies exclude “super exotics” from companies such as Ferrari, Lamborghini and Rolls-Royce.
Inflation for new and used cars also surged during the pandemic era, leading to higher vehicle prices. Materials and supplies became more expensive, driving up production costs for auto companies, said Waatti, and those higher costs are at least partly passed on to buyers.
Higher interest rates may also be keeping would-be buyers out of the car market right now, experts said.
Since buyers who generally shop for the least expensive cars tend to be budget-constrained, their absence from the market may be skewing average purchase prices higher, they said.
The average new-vehicle purchase price today is about $48,000, up from about $30,000 in 2012, according to Kelley Blue Book.

Four tips for consumers to find cars at a good price

Here are some general tips for consumers to find a reasonably priced car.
1. Know your budget — really
Most car buyers use monthly payments to conceptualize how expensive a car is.
However, consumers should know their overall budget before shopping by using an online auto loan calculator, McParland said. Otherwise, it’s hard to know if you’re getting a good deal, he added.
Certain auto loan calculators let consumers work backwards, by plugging in a monthly payment that fits their budget, along with other estimated information such as the loan’s term and interest rate. The output: the total vehicle price a buyer can afford.
“This is probably the best step any customer can take,” McParland said.

2. Look outside your local market
Casting a wide net during a car search yields more potential inventory and leverage against dealerships, McParland said. Some markets are “better than others,” and looking even an hour or two away will “very likely get you a more competitive deal,” he added.
3. Get prices in writing beforehand
Confirm car prices in writing with a dealer before walking in the door, McParland said. A refusal to do so is a red flag, he said.
“It’s code for, ‘We’re going to try to rip you off,'” he said.
4. Shop your financing
Don’t depend on a dealer’s financing offer.
Dealers can profit off consumers by offering a higher-than-necessary interest rate, experts said. That’s why it’s a good idea to get pre-approval for an auto loan — perhaps from a local bank, credit union or online lender — before setting foot in the dealership, they said.
These offers can provide leverage for a better rate at the dealership and are especially useful for buyers with credit scores below 700, who are unlikely to qualify for the best available rates, McParland said. More

Shares in Xinhua Trust, a Chinese shadow lender, are selling for rock-bottom prices. The outfit went bankrupt in May, becoming the first Chinese trust to fall in more than two decades. Since then chunks of the firm have been put up for sale on Taobao, an online e-commerce platform, at a 30% discount. Its company cars were recently added to the auction, which has been mandated by a court. A bargain-hunter could snap up Xinhua trademarks for just 12,000 yuan ($1,650). The shadow lender’s demise was an early warning: the same forces that brought it down are now ripping through China’s 21trn yuan trust industry. The country’s economic growth has been weaker than expected, and property developers are caught in an unprecedented wave of defaults and restructurings. China’s trusts, which channel funds from investors to infrastructure, property and other opportunities, are exposed to both developments. Although Xinhua’s bankruptcy has been relatively straightforward, a bigger blow-up may be on the way at Zhongrong, one of the country’s largest trusts, which missed payments to clients in mid-August. Panicked investors fear more firms will be ensnared, and that collapses will lead to further economic problems.During China’s years of strong economic growth, trusts and their investors flourished, with investment products often offering annual returns of 10% or more. Property developers and local governments were willing to pay lofty interest rates, transactions faced less regulatory scrutiny than bank lending and trusts benefited from the widespread perception that investors’ cash was safeguarded by the state in a fashion similar to bank deposits. That perception is now long gone—and as more developers default, it is likely that more shadow banks will be unable to pay out. Zhongrong, which managed about 630bn yuan in trust products at the end of last year, shows how pain has spread from the property industry to the financial system. When Sunac, China’s fifth-largest developer, defaulted last year, local governments began freezing company funds in order to ensure projects were finished. One of the locations where funds were frozen was Wuhan, a city in central China, and the money included investments linked to Zhongrong. Across the industry, about 7% of trust products were invested directly in the property sector at the end of March. Indirect investments via securities push that exposure to as much 30%, reckon analysts at anz, a bank. The risk of contagion is especially high because lending by trusts is ubiquitous and opaque, and because investment in them produces tangled financial ties. Zhongrong’s investors include several listed companies, for instance. Such companies often invest in trusts in order to eke out higher returns. Trusts have meanwhile invested about 4.6trn yuan in equities, bonds and other funds. They have also lent to local-government projects, and now cities and provinces across China are struggling to repay debts, which are estimated to have hit 57trn yuan at the end of 2022. There is another avenue through which trouble may spread. Zhongrong is controlled by a much larger investment manager, called Zhongzhi, which has about 1trn yuan in assets under management across a vast array of divisions. Zhongzhi has also been thrown into a liquidity crisis and has reportedly been unable to pay out the 230bn yuan it owes to some 150,000 wealthy investors. Across the country, similar investment-management firms have millions of customers. Since news of Zhongzhi’s troubles broke, phones have been ringing off the hook as worried clients, many of whom are regular white-collar workers, seek to confirm their savings are safe, reports an executive at another one of these companies.Such links between trusts, local governments and developers, and the possibility of larger financial firms getting in trouble, have spooked investors. Indeed, Zhongrong’s troubles have contributed to the poor performance of the Chinese stockmarket: the csi 300, a benchmark index, is down by more than 6% this month. Interventions by officials, which included a cut to stamp duty on August 27th, have had little impact.Policymakers are painfully aware of the problems faced by trusts. After all, they helped bring many of them into being through attempts to reduce risk. Since 2017 China’s shadow banks have been under intense regulatory scrutiny as part of an attempt to transfer opaque off-balance-sheet lending to banks. The official attack was ramped up in 2020 when the state introduced sharp restrictions on leverage at property developers. As a result of such moves, the issuance of shadow-banking products in the first half of this year was at its weakest in a decade, according to Capital Economics, a research firm. The crackdown has sapped liquidity and confidence from the property market, pushing both developers and trust firms towards default.In the short term, much of the pain will be borne by wealthy investors, as the threshold for putting money into a trust product is usually more than 300,000 yuan. Most cannot even demand their initial investments back, since products usually have terms that prevent investors from withdrawing, sometimes for up to two years. This may prevent a fully fledged financial crisis caused by a run on shadow lenders, and will give the government time to reckon with the mess. Bloomberg, a news service, has reported that China’s banking regulator has already set up a task force to examine the problems at Zhongzhi. Yet, given the vast, shadowy connections such firms have across the economy, government inspectors might not like what they find. ■ More

Goldman Sachs said it agreed to sell its personal financial management unit to a competitor named Creative Planning.
The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year and “result in a gain” for New York-based Goldman.
The bank declined to disclose the sale price for its PFM business.

David Solomon (centre), Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs during an event attended by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at the Business Roundtable during his visit to Washington DC in the US on June 8, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Niall Carson | WPA Pool | Getty Images

Goldman Sachs said Monday that it agreed to sell its personal financial management unit to a competitor named Creative Planning.
The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year and “result in a gain” for New York-based Goldman. The bank declined to disclose the sale price for its PFM business.

Goldman acquired a team of about 220 financial advisors managing $25 billion in assets in May 2019, when it announced the $750 million acquisition of United Capital Financial Partners. At the time, CEO David Solomon heralded the deal as a way to broaden Goldman’s reach beyond the ultra-rich clientele that is its main strength to those who are merely wealthy, with perhaps a few million dollars to invest.
But amid Solomon’s push to unload or shutter several businesses tied to his ill-fated retail banking plan, the PFM business was deemed too small in the context of Goldman’s larger aspirations in wealth and asset management. Goldman said in February that it only had about 1% of the high net worth market, or those who have between $1 million and $10 million to invest.
“This transaction is progress toward executing the goals and targets we outlined at our investor day in February,” Marc Nachmann, global head of asset and wealth management at Goldman, said Monday in a statement.
The sale “allows us to focus on the execution of our premier ultra-high net worth wealth management and workplace growth strategy” while continuing to support high net worth clients through a strategic partnership with Creative Planning, he said.
Selling the PFM business will help boost profit margins in Goldman’s asset and wealth management division, Jefferies analysts led by Daniel Fannon wrote Monday in a research note.

“With the offloading of Marcus installment loans completed in 2Q23, the GreenSky sale process in motion, and the continued reduction of legacy balance-sheet investments,” the bank is “getting closer to becoming the more durable and profitable business it outlined at investor day,” Fannon wrote.
Creative Planning is a Kansas-based registered investment advisor with more than 2,100 employees and $245 billion in assets under management and advisement. More

European shares traded higher on the final trading week of August, as traders weighed the prospect of higher interest rates from the U.S. Federal Reserve and looked ahead to upcoming economic data later in the week.

European markets

Germany’s DAX 30 was 0.8%, France’s CAC 40 climbed 1.1%, and the Italian FTSE MIB gained 1.1% by 1.40 p.m. London time.

Markets are closed in the U.K. for a public holiday.
It came as investors continued to reflect on a roundup of commentary from the Kansas City Federal Reserve’s annual retreat in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, last week.
The most closely watched speech of the event came from Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The U.S. central bank head said that inflation remains too high and that the Fed is ready to continue hiking interest rates to tame persistently high prices.
While Powell said the Fed could be flexible, he added it still has further to go to fight inflation. “Although inflation has moved down from its peak — a welcome development — it remains too high,” he said in prepared remarks.
“We are prepared to raise rates further if appropriate, and intend to hold policy at a restrictive level until we are confident that inflation is moving sustainably down toward our objective.”

China cuts trading duty

In Asia-Pacific, stocks began the week higher, with mainland Chinese and Hong Kong stocks leading gains in the region.
The main event driving the rally in Asia was a stock market policy change from the government. China’s Ministry of Finance on Monday cut the stamp duty on stock trades by half in an effort to boost investment in its stock market. It came after China’s CSI 300 index fell to a nine-month low.
Still, concerns linger among economists over structural issues in China’s economy, such as debt, demographics, and Beijing’s deteriorating relationship with the West.
Within the Chinese market, shares of the world’s most indebted property developer, China Evergrande Group, tumbled 87% as trade resumed after 17 months.
Back in Europe, developments are quiet on the corporate front as the region has wrapped up a busy earnings season.
Swiss bank Credit Suisse, which is now a subsidiary of UBS after a government-facilitated takeover, posted a 3.5 billion Swiss franc ($4 billion) loss, according to a report in the SonntagsZeitung citing insiders at the bank.
Shares of UBS rose about 1% Monday. The bank is set to report earnings on Thursday.
Technology and telecoms stocks were the best-performing sectors in the region, climbing 1.4% and 0.9%, respectively.
Looking at individual stocks, Italian telecoms firm Telecom Italia was the top performer on the Stoxx 600, rising 3.9%.
Later in the week, the U.S. Labor Department is set to release nonfarm payrolls showing the pace of jobs and wage growth, which could guide the Fed on how to proceed with its monetary policy. More