After Tuesday’s crisis of confidence, it looked like the European markets were tentatively ready to get back on the horse at Wednesday’s open.
Ahead of this evening’s Fed meeting – which is seen as unlikely to bring about any new measures, but will have the central bank’s first economic projections since December of last year – Europe was uniformly in the green.
This despite worse than forecast inflation and PPI readings out of China; the former slipped from 3.3% to 2.4% month-on-month, with the latter dropping from -3.1% to -3.7%. French industrial production was also marginally lower than estimated, the sector’s collapse accelerating from -16.1% to -20.1%.
Yet a certain amount of optimism returned to trading on Wednesday – or, if not optimism, than at least chance to buy following the rather hefty losses incurred during yesterday’s trading.
With its banking stocks largely rebounding – HSBC (LON:HSBA) was the sole holdout – the FTSE added half a percent, pushing it back above 6370.
The DAX matched that growth, allowing the German bourse to return to 12700, while the CAC nudged ahead with a 0.7% rise, leaving it above 5130.
The Dow Jones, which was infected by Europe’s negativity on Tuesday, is set to echo the region’s rebound, with the futures currently pointing to a 125 points increase.
It is worth noting, however, that the morning’s gains already seem very uncertain – as tends to be the case on Fed Wednesday – and may well be rendered moot by whatever the central bank reveals this evening.
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