European Shares Mixed As Investors Await Fed Minutes

European stocks were mixed on Wednesday ahead of the announcement of a government forecast that may show German GDP is set to contract in 2024.

Ahead of the revised economic forecast, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner has said the country’s economy is “treading water” and that the government “cannot be satisfied with economic development”.

The uncertainty arising from the Middle East conflict and caution ahead of the release of FOMC meeting minutes later in the day also weighed on markets.

The pan European STOXX 600 was marginally higher at 517.07 after falling 0.6 percent on Tuesday.

The German DAX was marginally lower, while France’s CAC 40 was little changed with a positive bias and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 rose 0.4 percent.

Volvo Car AB declined 1.4 percent. The company said as part of some organizational changes, its Chief Commercial Officer & Deputy CEO Björn Annwall will step down from his role.

Mondi, a packaging and paper group, jumped 3.3 percent in London after it agreed to acquire the Western European packaging assets of Schumacher Packaging for an enterprise value of 634 million euros.

CMC Markets surged nearly 5 percent. The provider of online financial trading and B2B institutional solutions reported that it expects a profit before tax in its first half, compared to last year’s loss, with higher operating income.

Nordex SE added 1.8 percent. The German wind turbine maker said that it has bagged orders for 1,726 MW wind turbines for the third-quarter, lesser than 2,251 MW of wind turbines, posted for the same period last year.

However, for the six-month period to September, the company secured orders for 5,083 MW wind turbines, higher than prior year’s 4,892 MW.

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