European stocks rise; Puig plunges as Estée Lauder talks end

[Global Business Strategy on Digital Display]

London (UKX [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/UKX]) +0.45% to 10,490.12. UK retail sales volumes dropped 1.3% month-on-month in April 2026.

Germany (DAX:IND [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/DAX:IND]) +0.67% to 24,769.71. Germany’s GfK Consumer Climate Indicator rose to -29.3 heading into June.

France (CAC:IND [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/CAC:IND]) +0.48% to 8,124.42. France’s manufacturing business climate index rose to 102 in May 2026, compared with expectations and April’s 100.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/STOXX] (STOXX) [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/STOXX] rose 0.6% on Friday, driven by continued strength in tech stocks as investors rotated into AI-related companies and assessed a series of economic data. A rally in Europe would put regional stocks on course for their fourth consecutive day of gains. The Stoxx 600 currently on track for a weekly rise of 2.25%.

Among equities, ASML Holding (ASML [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/ASML]) gained 2.6%, while Infineon (IFNNY [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/IFNNY]) added 3.7% and STMicroelectronics (STM [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/STM]) rose 3.5%.

Shares in Puig (PUIGF [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/PUIGF]), meanwhile, tumbled in early trade after discussions [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4596051-estee-lauder-puig-end-merger-talks] between the Spanish beauty conglomerate and U.S. cosmetics giant Estée Lauder (EL [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/EL]) over a potential business combination ended.

Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management, which manages around $578B, noted Europe's renewed focus on innovation, which has begun to show in the last two years in defence, energy security and AI infrastructure, _Reuters _reported.

"You are seeing capital expenditure into those areas. We do think that those kinds of secular themes have remained pretty strong and ​probably have been actually reinforced by ​the conflict," said Shah.

IN THE BOND MARKET, the yield on the US 10-year Treasury was down 3 basis points to 4.56%.

UK's 10-year yield was down 1 basis point to 4.91%.

Germany's 10-year yield was down less than 1 basis point to 3.05%.

Currencies: (EUR:USD [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/EUR:USD]) (GBP:USD [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/GBP:USD]) (CHF:USD [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/CHF:USD])

ETFs: (NYSEARCA:EWG [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/EWG]), (NYSE:GF [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/GF]), (NYSEARCA:EWI [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/EWI]), (NYSEARCA:EWQ [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/EWQ]), (NASDAQ:FGM [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/FGM]), (NASDAQ:DAX [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/DAX]), (NYSEARCA:FLGR [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/FLGR]), (NYSEARCA:FXB [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/FXB]), (NYSEARCA:EWU [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/EWU]), (NASDAQ:FKU [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/FKU]), (BATS:EWUS [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/EWUS]), (NYSEARCA:FLGB [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/FLGB]), (NYSEARCA:GREK [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/GREK])

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