European markets open to close, earnings, data and news

Kallum Pickering, chief economist at Peel Hunt, discusses the recent trade deals the U.K. has agreed with the U.S., India and European Union.

Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins told CNBC’s Karen Tso this morning that he sees a positive future for the European market, after the company announced it would open a new global AI hub in Paris, France.

The site will be used to train 230,000 people in AI and digital skills within the next three years.

Robbins said he had been speaking with European officials since January’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“It’s clear that Europe is really thinking hard and beginning to move forward on a different approach, regulation that encourages innovation, and a real focus on building national champions and building technology that the continent and the countries here to actually take advantage of these technology waves,” he said. “It’s always been a great market for us, we’ve always been here, we love it here, but we think it will only get better as we go to the future.”

However, he emphasized that Europe needed to move “quickly” to keep up with developments in the AI space.

“We think of ourselves as being a European [company] when we’re operating here, we’ve been here for a very long time, and I think if you look at the announcements going on all around the world it’s clear that this AI revolution is moving incredibly fast — so I don’t think it’s unique to Europe, I think every country around the world needs to move as fast as it possibly can to be prepared for this wave and it’s coming at us very quickly,” he said.

Asked about the impact U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs would have on Cisco’s operations, Robbins responded: “we are where we are.”

“What we need is some clarity around where it ends, what is the ultimate resolution? The business community and the markets, the one thing they can’t stand is uncertainty, and that’s where we are right now, we just don’t know where this is going to end,” he said.

“We’re in a lot of communication with the White House, and we’re hoping to do whatever we can to be a partner to them to help get these deals over the line, or whatever it is we need to do to make sure we get this done.” 

— Chloe Taylor

It’s a little past the opening bell in London and the Stoxx 600 is trading 0.2% lower, with most major sectors and bourses in negative territory.

London’s FTSE 100 is currently 0.1% lower, France’s CAC 40 is down 0.35%, and the DAX is 0.17% lower. The utilities, telecom, and technology sectors are in the green.

— Sawdah Bhaimiya

British retail giant M&S said Wednesday that a recent cyberattack, which brought online sales to a standstill and left food shelves bare, would cost it around £300 million ($403 million) in operating profit.

The company, known for its clothing, homeware and food products, said disruption from the “highly sophisticated and targeted cyber-attack” would run into July and result in increased stock management costs in the second quarter.

It added that the financial impact would be reduced through management of costs, insurance and other trading actions, with costs related to the incident to be presented separately as an adjusting item.

The cyberattack, which occurred over Easter, wiped over £1 billion from M&S’ stock market value and sent shock waves across the industry, with hackers also targeting the Co-op and Harrods.

M&S reported a 22% rise in profit before tax and adjusting items to £875.5 million, its highest level in 15 years.

— Karen Gilchrist

The British pound jumped by around 0.4% against the U.S. dollar immediately after the U.K.’s annual inflation print for April was published, with the figure coming in at a hotter-than-expected 3.5%.

Sterling was 0.5% higher against the greenback by 7:27 a.m. in London, trading at around $1.346.

The U.K.’s annual inflation rate hit 3.5% in April, coming in above analyst expectations, according to data released by the Office for National Statistics on Wednesday.

Economists polled by Reuters had anticipated the consumer price index would reach 3.3% in the twelve months to April.

The latest data release comes against a recent trend of cooling inflation, with the rate of price rises slowing to 2.8% in February and 2.6% in March.

Core inflation, which excludes more volatile energy, food, alcohol and tobacco…