{"id":70157,"date":"2026-02-20T09:15:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T09:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2026\/02\/20\/european-shares-mostly-higher-in-cautious-trade-9\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T09:15:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T09:15:06","slug":"european-shares-mostly-higher-in-cautious-trade-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2026\/02\/20\/european-shares-mostly-higher-in-cautious-trade-9\/","title":{"rendered":"European Shares Mostly Higher In Cautious Trade"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><\/div><p> \n<\/p>\n<div id=\"ctl00_CPI_dvBody\">\n<p> European stocks traded mostly higher on Friday and were set for weekly gains on the back of strong corporate earnings and easing AI concerns. <\/p>\n<p>The upside remained capped amid simmering geopolitical tensions after U.S. President Donald Trump set a deadline of 10-15 days for Iran to agree nuclear deal or face &#8220;bad things&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Iran warned U.S. bases in the Middle East could be &#8220;legitimate targets&#8221; if Washington attacks.<\/p>\n<p>British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has reportedly blocked a request from Trump to allow U.S. forces to use U.K. air bases during any pre-emptive attack on Iran, saying it could break international law.<\/p>\n<p>In economic releases, U.K. retail sales growth accelerated the most since May 2024, partly due to higher artwork and antiques sales, data from the Office for National Statistics showed.<\/p>\n<p>Retail sales posted a monthly growth of 1.8 percent in January, following a rise of 0.4 percent in December. This was the strongest growth since May 2024. <\/p>\n<p>On a yearly basis, retail sales growth accelerated to 4.5 percent in January from 1.9 percent in December. <\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere, a survey showed Euro zone <span class=\"landLinks\">business<\/span> activity accelerated faster than forecast this month.<\/p>\n<p>The pan-European Stoxx 600 edged up by 0.2 percent to 626.45 after falling half a percent on Thursday. <\/p>\n<p>The German DAX was marginally lower, while France&#8217;s CAC 40 rose about half a percent and the U.K.&#8217;s FTSE 100 was up 0.4 percent. <\/p>\n<p>West Africa-focused oil and gas company Tullow Oil fell 2.2 percent in London after 2025 revenue missed expectations. <\/p>\n<p>Reinsurance giant Swiss Re gained 1 percent after it agreed to buy QBE Insurance Group&#8217;s global trade credit and surety business. <\/p>\n<p>French industrial gases group Air Liquide rose about 2 percent. After posting a rise in full-year net profit, the company confirmed its 2026 margin guidance and announced a new operating margin target for 2027.<\/p>\n<p>Italian luxury brand Moncler soared nearly 11 percent after revenues rose 7 percent at constant exchange rates in the fourth quarter, driven by solid growth in Asia and the Americas. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Business News<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n        window.fbAsyncInit = function () {\n            FB.init({\n                status: true,\n                cookie: true,\n                xfbml: true\n            });\n        };\n        (function (d) {\n            var js, id = 'facebook-jssdk'; if (d.getElementById(id)) { return; }\n            js = d.createElement('script'); js.id = id; js.async = true;\n            js.src = \"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js\";\n            d.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(js);\n        }(document));\n    <\/script><br \/>\n<br \/>\n<br \/>European Shares Mostly Higher In Cautious Trade<\/a><br \/>\n<br \/>2026-02-20 09:15:06<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>European stocks traded mostly higher on Friday and were set for weekly gains on the back of strong corporate earnings and easing AI concerns. The upside remained capped amid simmering&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.unsplash.com\/photo-1531412501799-1b4c354ca957?ixid=MXwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHw=&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=2734&q=80","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-euro-markets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/70158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}