European stocks posted small gains Wednesday, as investors digested more quarterly corporate earnings ahead of the release of keenly-anticipated regional inflation data.
At 03:02 ET (08:02 GMT), the DAX index in Germany climbed 0.2%, the CAC 40 in France gained 0.4% and the FTSE 100 in the U.K. rose 0.3%.
Subscribe to InvestingPro for more stock market analysis - get a discount of up to 50% now Earnings season continues apace; UBS shines The sharp sell-off in precious metals, which began at the end of last week, has now settled down, allowing investors to focus once more on the ongoing quarterly earnings season, with a number of senior European companies scheduled to report this week.
UBS (SIX:UBSG) posted a forecast-beating 56% surge in net profit on strong performances from its wealth management and investment banking divisions.
The Swiss bank, the world’s largest wealth manager, also announced plans to repurchase at least $3 billion of shares in 2026, the same amount it bought back last year, and aims "to do more."
GSK (LON:GSK) forecast slower sales growth in 2026 in the first outlook presented by new CEO Luke Miels as the drugmaker shifts focus on expanding its pipeline to counter looming patent expiries for its top-selling HIV drugs.
Novartis (SIX:NOVN) forecast a decline in 2026 operating profit in the low single-digit percentage range, with the Swiss drugmaker’s results held back by competition from cheaper copies of established products such as heart drug Entresto.
Banco Santander (BME:SAN) reported a 12% rise in attributable profit for 2025, marking its fourth consecutive year of record results as the Spanish bank benefited from resilient interest income and record fee generation.
French bank Credit Agricole (EPA:CAGR) reported its fourth-quarter net income fell 24% as a hefty first-consolidation charge from its Banco BPM stake overshadowed record annual revenues and a proposed dividend increase.
There are also earnings on Wall Street to digest Wednesday, with the spotlight on the numbers from Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), after the close.
The Google parent is expected to report a 15.5% jump in revenue to $111.37 billion.
Investors will be focused on the company’s spending plans for 2026, its outlook for cloud services demand and an update on AI capacity constraints.
Eurozone inflation data due Away from the corporate sector, eurozone preliminary inflation data for January is due later Wednesday, ahead of the European Central Bank’s rate decision a day later.
Expectations are for consumer prices in the bloc to have eased slightly to an annual 1.7% last month, comfortably below the ECB’s 2% target.
The ECB is widely expected to keep rates steady at 2% for the fifth straight meeting, but a significant miss in the inflation number could raise concerns for policymakers, who last month flagged growing worries over the euro’s quick appreciation against the dollar and its potential to push inflation even lower.
