US and European stocks hit new record highs

Stay informed with free updates

Simply sign up Equities myFT Digest — delivered straight to your inbox.

The US S&P 500 was driven to a new record-high after bumper Netflix results added fuel to a rally driven by a flurry of US President Donald Trump’s “America First” policy announcement.

Large-cap US blue-chip index stock It was up as much as 0.8 percent by midday in New York, surpassing the previous intraday high of 6,099.97 on Dec. 6.

The S&P 500 last week posted its best five-session gain since Trump’s election victory.

Netflix, whose fourth-quarter earnings beat analysts’ forecasts released overnight, rose 11 percent on Wednesday, dragging other technology stocks higher. Oracle jumped 6 percent after joining other tech titans, including OpenAI, in announcing plans for a new US artificial intelligence project.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 1.5 percent from an intraday high in mid-December.

Wednesday’s gains come as Trump used his first three days in office to threaten new tariffs against US allies and vow to end a period of American “decline”.

Expected cuts in corporate tax rates and financial deregulation added to investors’ sense of optimism a week after some of the country’s biggest banks reported sharply higher profits on a recovery in dealmaking and trading.

The Stoxx Europe 600 hit a record high on Wednesday as fears over US tariffs eased and investors bought cheaper European stocks after strong corporate earnings.

The broad-based European index rose as much as 0.9 percent to a record high of 530.55 on gains by some of Europe’s biggest companies, including Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk and Germany’s Adidas.

It rose 0.3 percent after paring some of its gains.

Frankfurt’s DAX rose 0.9 percent in late afternoon – after hitting a new high – led by a 6.5 percent gain for Adidas after its strong full-year results.

Luca Paolini, chief strategist at Pictet Asset Management, called it a “risk-on environment”. [was] Lifting all boats, especially the weakest”, helped other factors, including concerns about a slight easing of US tariffs.

Despite repeated threats, Trump has yet to impose new tariffs on goods exported from the bloc to the US.

“There is some comfort in the view that Trump is softer than the market thinks,” said Emmanuel Kau, an analyst at Barclays.

“Give [European] “The market is no longer afraid of Trump because he gives the impression that he is trying to negotiate,” he said.

London’s FTSE 100 also set a new intraday record before slipping 0.2 percent in late afternoon.

The rise came after a Bank of America survey of European fund managers this week showed investors increased their allocations to European equities as fears over higher valuations rose on Wall Street.

Just 19 percent of fund managers were “overweight” U.S. stocks in January, down from a record 36 percent the previous month. The shift from US stocks to eurozone stocks was the biggest shift in nearly a decade, the bank said.

Trump also said Tuesday that his administration is discussing imposing 10 percent tariffs on Chinese imports as early as next month. He revealed on Monday that he would introduce its tariffs 25 percent against Mexico and Canada As of February 1.