{"id":70452,"date":"2026-02-27T09:11:40","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T09:11:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2026\/02\/27\/european-shares-mostly-higher-despite-ai-related-concerns\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T09:11:40","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T09:11:40","slug":"european-shares-mostly-higher-despite-ai-related-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2026\/02\/27\/european-shares-mostly-higher-despite-ai-related-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"European Shares Mostly Higher Despite AI-related Concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><\/div><p> \n<\/p>\n<div id=\"ctl00_CPI_dvBody\">\n<p> European stocks were modestly higher on Friday despite lingering concerns regarding artificial-intelligence related layoffs and workforce disruption. <\/p>\n<p>Block, led by Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey, has announced its decision to lay off 40 percent of its workforce because of labor-saving artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n<p>In economic releases, consumer confidence in the United Kingdom dropped to a three-month low in February, defying expectations for a modest improvement.<\/p>\n<p>The U.K. consumer confidence index fell to -19 from -16 in January, the Consumer Confidence Barometer survey by the GfK and the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions (NIM) revealed, while economists had expected a mild increase to -15. The latest reading is the lowest since November.<\/p>\n<p>The British pound fell to its lowest level against the euro in more than two months amid political jitters after the Green Party won a special election in England.<\/p>\n<p>The euro was moving in a narrow range against the dollar following reports that the European Central Bank moved away from U.S. dollar holdings in early 2025.<\/p>\n<p>The pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.2 percent at 634.24 after finishing marginally lower on Thursday amid a flurry of corporate earnings releases. <\/p>\n<p>The German DAX gained 0.1 percent and the U.K.&#8217;s FTSE 100 added half a percent while France&#8217;s CAC 40 was down 0.1 percent. <\/p>\n<p>London-listed recruiter Hays slumped nearly 8 percent after reporting a sharp decline in first-half earnings. <\/p>\n<p>GKN Aerospace owner Melrose slumped 14 percent after it forecast 2026 revenue below expectations.<\/p>\n<p>Belgian telecom operator Proximus plummeted 21 percent. The company announced job cuts and slashed dividends after revenues fell 6.6 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n<p>French steel tubes maker Vallourec advanced 1.5 percent after Q4 revenue came in above expectations. <\/p>\n<p>German online takeaway food company Delivery Hero tumbled 4.5 percent after reporting annual gross merchandise value (GMV) slightly below market expectations.<\/p>\n<p>Chemical giant BASF fell more than 2 percent after it forecast flat earnings this year.<\/p>\n<p>Reinsurer Swiss Re surged 5 percent after reporting a 47 percent rise in 2025 net profit. <\/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 Despite AI-related Concerns<\/a><br \/>\n<br \/>2026-02-27 09:11:40<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>European stocks were modestly higher on Friday despite lingering concerns regarding artificial-intelligence related layoffs and workforce disruption. Block, led by Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey, has announced its decision&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70453,"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-70452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-euro-markets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70452","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=70452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/70453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}