European stocks with best week in four months

European stocks on Friday finished with their strongest weekly gain in more than four months, with Carrefour’s shares surging as the French retailer added to a batch of better-than-expected earnings reports that have helped push regional equities to a six-week high.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index closed up 0.4% at 392.08, its highest finish since June 14. All but the technology sector ended higher, and the telecommunications sector paced advancers.

For the week, the pan-European benchmark rose 1.7%, the best weekly rise since March 9 when the index surged 3.1%.

Germany’s DAX 30 index closed with a gain of 0.4% at 12,860.40, and France’s CAC 40 index rose 0.6% to 5,511.76. On Friday, French second-quarter GDP growth of 0.1% missed expectations. The DAX 40 and the CAC also marked their best weeks since early March by bulking up 2.4% and 2.1% respectively.

Spain’s IBEX 35 jumped 0.9% to 9,867.90, and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 index closed 0.5% higher at 7,701.31.

The euro turned higher against the U.S. dollar, trading at $1.1654 compared with $1.1644 late Thursday in New York, following U.S. economic data that included the first look at second-quarter growth.

European stocks extended Thursday’s climb that took German stocks to a five-week high. Those moves came after European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and U.S. President Donald Trump said they would work on tamping down trade-related tensions between the U.S. and the European Union. The two said they’ll move toward “zero tariffs” and “zero subsidies on nonauto industrial goods,” among other actions.

The busy week of earnings reports and developments on the trade front was capped by the first reading of second-quarter GDP for the U.S. The world’s largest economy expanded by 4.1%, slightly below average economists’ estimates for 4.2% but the fastest pace in nearly four years. After that report, the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index fell in July to a six-month low.