Earnings Reports Propel European Stocks Higher but AMS Plunges

Frankfurt (Oct 25)  European stocks rose on Tuesday, taking the baton from Wall Street, amid some well-received earnings updates.

The FTSE 100 was recently up 0.53% at 7,023.57 as Anglo American pulled the index higher after a production report, with other miners also gaining. The DAX gained 0.43% to 10,807.65 and the CAC 40 rose 0.31% to 4,566.56. Earnings gainers included French telecom Orange, which was up 2.6%, staffing agency Randstad (RANJF) , which rose more than 3% after beating third-quarter forecasts, and Monte dei Paschi di Siena, which rose 3.5% after unveiling a restructuring plan including 2,600 job cuts with its third-quarter report.

But chip maker AMS fell about 22% in Zurich as it predicted a "negative development" in revenue and earnings in the fourth quarter and said it had "production yield" issues.  The company also said it would buy optical packaging maker Heptagon.

Novartis (NVS) was down 1.5% in Zurich despite beating third-quarter earnings expectations as quarterly sales from a new heart drug disappointed.
And U.K. leisure company Whitbread was down more than 2% in London after same-store sales growth came in marginally below expectations in the first half.

Deutsche Bank (DB) , Credit Suisse (CS) and Barclays (BCS) were up marginally after Sky News reported that the Department of Justice wants to strike an "omnibus" agreement with all three banks over over charges they missold mortgage-backed securities before the credit crisis. But the Department of Justice reportedly will delay the settlement until after the elections and potentially until January, when the new administration arrives. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) , which also embroiled in a probe over similar allegations, was little changed.

Source: TheStreet