By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - European stock markets posted strong gains Wednesday, with signs of a global economic recovery overshadowing weak German retail sales.
At 3:45 AM ET (0745 GMT), the DAX in Germany traded 1.5% higher, the CAC 40 in France rose 1.4%, while the U.K.'s FTSE index was up 1.7%.
U.S. manufacturing indicators pointed to an expanding sector on Tuesday, with the reading from the Institute for Supply Management hitting its highest level in nearly two years.
Eurozone manufacturing activity also grew last month, despite Spain slipping back into contraction, while Chinese factory data signaled rising global demand for exports, a sign the world economy is recovering from the pandemic.
This broad picture of growth has meant that the market has paid little attention Wednesday to the news that German retail sales fell 0.9% on the month in July, after a revised drop of 1.9% in June.
In corporate news, Barratt Developments (LON:BDEV), Britain's biggest housebuilder, climbed 5.9% after it flagged an improvement in forward sales, despite reporting a substantial fall in annual housing completions and revenue.
Pernod Ricard (PA:PERP) rose 1.8% despite booking a 1 billion euro impairment for its fiscal year as sales plunged during the pandemic-inspired shutdowns. Helping the stock was its inclusion into the blue chip Euro Stoxx 50 as part of the index’s rebalancing.
Also entering the index were Prosus (AS:PRX), Adyen (AS:ADYEN), Vonovia (DE:VNAn) and KONE Oyj (HE:KNEBV), with BBVA (MC:BBVA), Societe Generale (PA:SOGN) Telefonica (NYSE:TEF), Orange (PA:ORAN) and Fresenius (DE:FREG) making way.
Investors will also be keeping a close eye on the ADP (NASDAQ:ADP) Research Institute’s August jobs report in the U.S., due at 8:15 AM ET (1215 GMT), ahead of Thursday’s weekly jobless claims and Friday’s official U.S. monthly employment report.
The ADP report is expected to show gains of 950,000 non-farm private sector jobs, a hefty jump from 167,000 in July.
Oil prices posted gains Wednesday, boosted by a larger-than-expected drop in U.S. stockpiles.
The American Petroleum Institute reported late Tuesday that crude inventories fell by 6.4 million barrels last week to about 501.2 million barrels, when analysts had expected a draw of 1.9 million barrels.
Investors will now look to the Energy Information Administration’s release later in the session to see if it paints a similar picture.
U.S. crude futures traded 1% higher at $43.19 a barrel, while the international benchmark Brent contract rose 0.9% to $45.98.
Elsewhere, gold futures fell 0.5% to $1,968.80/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.3% lower at 1.1875.