European markets close higher as economic concerns dominate Davos

Stocks opened flat on Tuesday morning.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 48 points, or 0.1%. The S&P 500 opened above the flat line at 0.01%. The Nasdaq Composite was lower by 0.08%.

— Tanaya Macheel

Shares of German chemicals company K+S gained more than 7% to lead the Stoxx 600 by mid-afternoon, while at the bottom of the index, British nanopore sequencing technology company Oxford Nanopore fell more than 10% after issuing below-consensus full-year revenue guidance.

- Elliot Smith

2023 will be "the year of inflection" for the global economy, said UBS CEO Ralph Hamers on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where inflation, interest rates and economic growth are firmly in focus.

Investors are cautiously optimistic on the recent deluge of promising data from major economies, with inflation prints indicating that consumer price increases may be coming back to earth.

Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters told CNBC in Davos on Tuesday that he's wary of concluding that inflation is over the hill, especially when looking at the global picture.

"Inflation is not done. We had the big energy price spike and we're having the energy price decompression, partially, but underlying, the job market in the U.S. is still pretty strong, there are labor shortages around the world," Winters said.

Read the full story here.

- Elliot Smith

Christian Mumenthaler, CEO of Swiss Re, discusses catastrophe risk and the impact of current inflation and interest rates on the insurance sector.

Shares of luxury behemoth LVMH rose to a new record Tuesday morning, pushing the group's market cap above 400 billion euros ($434 billion) for the first time, as reported by Reuters.

Gains pared slightly throughout the morning, with the company value settling near 392 billion euros by midday.

LVMH has benefitted from China's quick reopening, which helped it secure its position as Europe's most valuable company.

LVMH recently reshuffled its top team, after CEO Bernard Arnault appointed his daughter to lead Christian Dior and named a new head for Louis Vuitton.

— Hannah Ward-Glenton

Pekka Haavisto, the minister for foreign affairs for Finland, told CNBC's Silvia Amaro that we must be prepared for a long conflict in Ukraine.

Haavisto was speaking from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

You can follow all of CNBC's Davos coverage here.

Oliver Bäte, CEO of insurance and asset management giant Allianz, reflects on what he describes as one of the worst imaginable market environments last year, but says the company is "benefitting tremendously" from rising rates in the insurance business.

Global growth will bottom in 2023 and rebound in 2024, said International Monetary Fund's managing director Kristalina Georgieva.

"I don't see a downgrade now, but growth in 2023 will slow down," Georgieva said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

"Our projection is that we will go by half a percentage point down vis-a-vis 2022. The good news though is that we expect growth to bottom out this year and 2024 to be a year in which we finally see the world economy on an upside," Georgieva said.

You can read more about Georgieva's interview with CNBC here.

— Hannah Ward-Glenton

Pay growth picked up in Britain in the three months to November, data from the Office for National Statistics showed.

Excluding bonuses, pay rose by 6.4% year on year, the biggest increase since records began in 2001, excluding anomalies during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Reuters economists had expected pay excluding bonuses to increase by 6.3%.

The Bank of England is keeping a close eye on pay growth as it considers future interest rate hikes.

Britain's jobless rate held at 3.7% according to the ONS, close to its lowest in almost 50 years, as reported by Reuters.

— Hannah Ward-Glenton

The U.K. is fiscally unstable, says Enquest CEO.

Amjad Bseisu, CEO of oil and gas company Enquest, discusses investments in the energy industry in the U.K., windfall taxes, and the volatility of the oil price in 2023.

Shares of British digital grocer Ocado fell more than 8% in early trade to the bottom of the Stoxx 600 after the company missed fourth-quarter sales estimates as customers bought less per order ami the U.K.'s cost of living crisis.

At the top of the European blue chip index, Italian aerospace and defense company Leonardo added 4.5%.

- Elliot Smith

Shares of an under-the-radar carbon capture company are expected to rise by 65% due to increasing global demand for emissions reduction technology, according to investment banks analyzing the stock.

The company's latest innovation, revealed last week, could cut the energy needed to capture carbon and improve the company's profitability in the future, according to analysts at a German investment bank.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Ganesh Rao

With the first two weeks of 2023 trading done, the three major indexes are up so far for the year.

The Nasdaq Composite is leading the way, adding 5.9% as investors bought beaten-down technology stocks on rising hopes of an improving landscape for growth holdings. The S&P 500 and Dow followed, gaining 4.2% and 3.5%, respectively.

— Alex Harring

China's December retail sales beat estimates, falling only 1.8% on an annualized basis, significantly better than the decline of 8.6% projected in a Reuters poll.

Industrial output also grew 1.3% in December, higher than expectations for an increase of 0.2%.

In the fourth quarter, China's economy expanded by 2.9% on an annualized basis, better than the expected 1.8% growth. While quarterly growth was flat, it still beat expectations for a 0.8% contraction.

Despite better-than-expected data, the Chinese offshore yuan weakened sharply from 6.7403 to 6.7563 against the U.S. dollar shortly after the release.

– Jihye Lee

European markets are set to open mixed Thursday.

The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index is expected to open 17 points higher at 7,872, Germany's DAX up 5 points at 17,789, France's CAC 10 points lower at 7,983 and Italy's FTSE MIB down 8 points at 32,963, according to data from IG.

Earnings are set to come from Nokia, Easyjet and ABB. Data releases include new European car registration figures for March.

— Holly Ellyatt