Sawt Falasteen - Global stocks mostly climb as trade fears ease

The British pound slumped as the Bank of England lowered its UK economic growth forecast by half to 0.75 percent.

The announcement came alongside a decision to cut its key interest rate by a quarter point to 4.5 percent in efforts to boost the economy.

London's FTSE 100 was also boosted by pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca. The stock index's most valuable company, its share price climbed more than six percent on a positive outlook following a jump in annual net profit.

Wall Street's main indices were mixed ahead of Amazon's earnings report after the close of trading.

"Market participants are closely watching the company's artificial intelligence spending plans, especially following the emergence of a cost-effective AI model from Chinese start-up DeepSeek, which has sparked fresh competitive concerns," said City Index and FOREX.com analyst Fawad Razaqzada.

Shares in Amazon rose 0.5 percent, having fallen more than two percent on Wednesday as the trade dispute between Washington and Beijing threatened its e-commerce operations.

Shares in Qualcomm fell more than four percent despite the chip manufacturer posting better-than-expected quarterly results as it warned patent-related revenue would slow down due to the expiration of a deal with China's Huawei.

Japanese carmaker Nissan closed up more than seven percent in Tokyo after reports said it was looking for a new partner amid talk that its flagged tie-up with Honda would not go ahead.

Honda fell four percent.

There were solid gains across European stock markets.

Shares in French bank Societe Generale soared more than 13 percent in Paris after posting better-than-expected results.

Frankfurt stocks touched a fresh record high after official data showing German industrial orders rebounded more than expected in December.

Global equities slumped earlier this week after US President Donald Trump announced hefty tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico.

Sentiment has improved, however, after Trump reached deals with the North American neighbours to delay implementation of the measures.

"For all the doom and gloom, talk of trade wars and tariffs, and broad geopolitical risk, investors keep putting money to work at companies with good valuations," noted Neil Wilson, analyst at TipRanks trading group.

But ongoing uncertainty about the economic outlook helped gold, a haven asset, to a new high above $2,882 an ounce.

On currency markets, the yen built on recent gains against the dollar fuelled by expectations the Bank of Japan will continue hiking interest rates as inflation remains elevated.

- Key figures around 1630 GMT -

New York - Dow: DOWN 0.2 percent at 44,778.76 points

New York - S&P 500: UP 0.2 percent at 6,074.70

New York - Nasdaq Composite: UP 0.2 percent at 19,735.68

London - FTSE 100: UP 1.2 percent at 8,727.28 (close)

Paris - CAC 40: UP 1.5 percent at 8,007.62 (close)

Frankfurt - DAX: UP 1.5 percent at 21,902.42 (close)

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 0.6 percent to 39,066.53 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 1.4 percent to 20,891.62 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: UP 1.3 percent to 3,270.66 (close)

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0375 from $1.0397 on Wednesday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2443 from $1.2502

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 151.83 yen from 152.63 yen

Euro/pound: UP at 83.38 pence from 83.16 pence

Brent North Sea Crude: UP 0.2 percent at $74.78 per barrel

West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.3 percent at $71.23 per barrel

burs-rl/jj

L.Hussein--SF-PST