By Avantika Chilkoti 

Major U.S. stock indexes perked up Friday on signs of strength in the technology sector and upbeat economic data from Europe.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.3% in morning trading, while the S&P 500 rose less than 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.3%.

Shares of Intel, a Dow constituent, surged 8.2%. The giant chip maker late Thursday reported fourth-quarter earnings that beat expectations following an upswing in personal-computer shipments and robust demand for chips to power data centers.

Rival chip maker Broadcom gained 2.7% after the company said it had secured multiyear supply agreements to provide wireless components for Apple products.

Overseas, the pan-continental Stoxx Europe 600 index climbed 1.1% as investor sentiment was buoyed by data that signaled a halt to the slowdown in the German manufacturing sector.

Preliminary data on purchasing managers' indexes, closely watched measures of business activity, suggested that the manufacturing sector in the eurozone -- and Germany, in particular -- fared better than the market had expected in January. Factories in the region saw export orders begin to stabilize after a long and deep decline, and while the manufacturing sector continued to contract, it was at a slower pace than previous months.

"The markets are reacting to the signs of bottoming in German manufacturing," said Mike Bell, global market strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management. "It's pretty key because the big question on everyone's mind has been: is there recession risk? And the most obvious risk there was a downturn in European manufacturing."

Within European equities, shares in Ericsson dropped 6.5% after higher costs weighed on the telecommunications equipment company's latest earnings, and it said expenses will continue to rise this year.

Meanwhile, Carrefour rose 6.2% after the French retailer boosted its guidance for 2019 earnings, exceeding investors' expectations.

U.K. stocks rose, with the FTSE 100 index climbing 1.2% after the latest purchasing managers index data was better than analysts expected.

The readings are "the surest sign yet that the economy has turned a corner since the election," and would likely mean the Bank of England holds off cutting rates later this month, analysts at Capital Economics said in a note.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 benchmark closed up 0.1% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng finished the day up almost 0.2%. Chinese and Korean markets were closed for public holidays.

Write to Avantika Chilkoti at Avantika.Chilkoti@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 24, 2020 10:23 ET (15:23 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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