FTSE 100 LIVE: European stocks follow Wall Street rally as UK ends 2023 in recession

The FTSE (^FTSE) and European stocks were higher on Thursday despite official figures confirming that the UK fell into a recession in the second half of 2023. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), gross domestic product fell by 0.3% in the last three months of 2023, giving two consecutive falls after a decrease of 0.1% in the previous quarter. It was a sharper fall than economists were expecting. London’s benchmark index was 0.3% higher in early trade Germany's DAX (^GDAXI) nudged 0.1% higher and the CAC (^FCHI) in Paris advanced 0.4% The pan-European STOXX 600 (^STOXX) was up 0.2% Wall Street is set to open higher as S&P 500 futures (ES=F), Dow futures (YM=F) and Nasdaq futures (NQ=F) were all in the green UK house prices average discount drops to £10,000 German retail sales fall unexpectedly in February Follow along for live updates throughout the day: It has been confirmed that the UK economy went into recession at the end of last year. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) says that GDP shrank by 0.3% in the last three months of the year. It followed contraction of 0.1% in the third quarter of 2023, confirming a technical recession...

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