European stocks climb as company earnings bolster confidence******

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LONDON, April 23 (Bloomberg): European stocks climbed this past week, recovering from a selloff, as earnings from Intel Corp and Apple Inc to PSA Peugeot Citroen and L'Oreal SA spurred investor optimism in the global economic recovery. Infineon Technologies AG, Europe's second-largest chipmaker rallied more than 3 percent. Peugeot and Fiat SpA led gains in carmakers, while L'Oreal, the world's biggest cosmetics maker, climbed more than 2 per cent in Paris. The benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 Index gained 1 percent in the holiday-shortened week as 37 of the gauge's companies reported earnings. The measure sank 1.7 per cent April 18, the largest drop in a month, after Standard & Poor's cut its credit outlook for the US, the world's largest economy. "We continue to favor equities as our preferred asset class," said Tristan Hanson, head of asset allocation at Jersey, Channel Islands-based Ashburton Ltd., which oversees $1.7 billion. "Behind the scenes, corporate profits and cash flows have continued to recover strongly from the crisis." National benchmark indexes climbed in 10 of the 18 western European markets. Germany's DAX Index rose 1.6 per cent, France's CAC 40 Index climbed 1.2 per cent and the UK's FTSE 100 Index rose 0.4 per cent. Western European stock markets were closed April 22 for the Good Friday holiday. Greece's ASE Index and Portugal's PSI-20 Index were the region's worst performing markets, falling 2.6 per cent and 1.7 per cent respectively as the cost of insuring debt sold by the countries rose to records. Infineon, ARM Holdings Infineon led technology shares higher, jumping 6.1 per cent after the company said second-quarter sales and profitability beat its own forecasts. The shares also advanced after Intel, the world's biggest chipmaker, posted first-quarter profit that beat analysts' projections. ARM Holdings Plc climbed 1.6 per cent as Apple reported second-quarter profit that almost doubled to $5.99 billion, boosted by sales of smartphones. ARM designs chips that are used in Apple's iPhones. Of the western European companies that that reported earnings since April 11, profits have topped estimates by an average of 5 per cent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. In the US, companies on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index have beaten forecasts by an average of 9.7 per cent. Peugeot rallied 7.3 per cent after Europe's second-biggest carmaker posted a 10 per cent increase in first-quarter revenue. Fiat advanced 6.8 per cent, even as the company said it will pay $1.27 billion to build a 51 per cent stake in Chrysler Group LLC two years earlier than planned.