Renewed confidence that the European Central Bank and Federal Reserve would continue their stimulus policies helped offset data showing unemployment in Germany increased in February.
European markets finished lower, with the Stoxx Europe 600 losing 0.7% as downbeat economic data offset strong demand at auctions of Spanish and French bonds.
The disappointing export figures, however, were partly offset by strong investment data released the same day.
One outlier: Pulte Group, which surged on an analyst upgrade from Goldman Sachs that offset the downbeat housing data.
Stocks were mixed Tuesday after Europe debt woes offset the encouraging housing data.
Suitable (and legitimate) statistical massaging of all the data may be able to offset these biases in a way that could not so easily be done for the smaller data sets from individual countries.
Asia stocks closed deep in the red, while U.S. stocks traded lower on Wall Street, as fresh housing data failed to offset worries over the euro zone.
Vodafone said the pressure from price competition and continuing economic problems in the eurozone had been partially offset by improved revenue from data services, as more people had smartphones.
The figures helped offset surprisingly weak April retail sales data out on Thursday.
The news ties in to the overall trend of carriers experimenting with pricing to offset the growing demand for wireless data.
FORBES: Analyst: Sprint's New Smartphone Data Plans Show Confidence
Sequentially and year-on-year, quarterly service revenues decreased primarily due to contract customer losses, which were partially offset by the increased adoption of data plans in the contract and prepaid customer base.
ENGADGET: T-Mobile lost more customers in Q4, will launch LTE in 2013 with AWS spectrum from AT&T
European markets lost ground, with the Stoxx Europe 600 finishing down 0.9% after running up 2.7% over the previous four sessions, as worries about Cyprus offset better-than-expected production data.
Carriers are looking to data to drive sales growth and offset declining voice revenue.
In the meantime, the lackluster hardware business is being offset by improved performances in areas such as data center, which grew 65% year over year.
European markets finished lower, with the Stoxx Europe 600 down 0.4%, as a disappointing Spanish treasury-bill auction offset better-than-expected consumer-confidence data in France.
Continued strong growth in consumer IP data services in the second quarter more than offset lower revenues from voice and legacy products.
ENGADGET: AT&T's Q2: 5.1 million smartphones sold helps make a $6.8 billion profit
In Asia the data has been supportive but that has to be offset against the property tightening in China.
The 2012 data show that slowing exports to G3 economies were offset in part by strong shipments to major emerging markets and commodity exporters.
Carriers are betting that sales of smartphone data services that let users connect to the Internet will offset the fast decline in voice revenue.
The historical data used to predict recessions in the past are less useful if a new shock cannot be offset with fiscal and monetary policy.
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