European stock markets are mostly up (-0.3% in London, but +0.5% in Frankfurt and +1% in Paris), in a session marked by the strength of luxury stocks in the wake of Burberry's encouraging publication.

Shares in the British high-end clothing brand soared by 13% in London, on the back of a much smaller than expected fall in sales in the last three months of 2024, thanks to a solid performance in the United States.

The improvement in business trends was underpinned by core businesses in coats and scarves, in line with new CEO Joshua Schulman's strategy of refocusing the brand on its fundamentals", says RBC.

In its wake, the Burberry share is dragging along European luxury heavyweights such as Richemont (+3%) in Zurich, LVMH (+3%) and Kering (+9%) in Paris, as well as smaller players such as Hugo Boss (+2% in Frankfurt).

Still on the stock front, traders punished the annual results unveiled by perfume and aroma group Givaudan (-2% in Zurich), and above all those of network equipment supplier Ericsson (-8% in Stockholm).

On the macroeconomic front, the HCOB flash composite PMI index of overall activity in the eurozone recovered to 50.2 in January, signalling the first rise in economic activity in the region since August 2024.

Cyrus de la Rubia, Chief Economist at Hamburg Commercial Bank, points out: "The improvement in economic activity throughout the zone was largely due to the performance of Germany, which saw its overall activity pick up again.

The British private sector also picked up slightly in January, despite the recent reawakening of inflation: the UK composite PMI index rose to 50.9 this month, compared with 50.4 the previous month.

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