European Stocks Close Higher Ahead Of Fed Minutes

European stocks closed higher on Wednesday with traders building up some long positions ahead of the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s most recent policy meeting, and the crucial U.S. inflation data for further clarity on the Fed interest-rate trajectory. Also, investors looked ahead to the earnings season.

The mood was a bit positive as investors hoped the Chinese government will announce more fiscal stimulus as the economic planning agency’s emergency briefing raised skepticism over the sufficiency of previously planned measures.

The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 0.66%. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 ended higher by 0.65%, Germany’s DAX gained 0.99% and France’s CAC 40 ended 0.52% up, while Switzerland’s SMI settled 0.93% up.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and Turkiye closed higher.

Greece and Russia ended weak, while Denmark and Spain settled flat.

In the UK market, Mondia climbed more than 4% after it agreed to acquire the Western European packaging assets of Schumacher Packaging for an enterprise value of 634 million euros.

Centrica ended 3.3% up and Marks & Spencer advanced nearly 3%. Ashtead Group, Fresnillo, Beazley, Kingfisher, Informa, Lloyds Banking Group, IMI, British Land Company, Unite Group and Reckitt Benckiser gained 1.5 to 2.3%. Anglo American Plc, Whitbread and 3i Group also ended notably higher.

Vistry Group shares dropped nearly 2%. Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey, Next and National Grid ended modestly lower.

In the German market, Continental rallied more than 7%. HeidelbergCement, Infineon, Siemens, Daimler Truck Holding, Zalando, Porsche, BASF, Henkel, Munich RE, Qiagen, SAP, Hannover Rueck, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Fresenius and Deutsche Bank gained 1 to 3%.

Bayer closed nearly 7% down. Rheinmettal, Symrise and Commerzbank closed modestly lower.

In the French market, Renault gained more than 3%. Legrand ended 2.2% up. Stellantis gained nearly 2%.

Vinci, STMicroElectronics, Edenred, Unibail Rodamco, Schneider Electric, Kering, Accor, Bouygues, Carrefour, AXA and Airbus Group ended with sharp to moderate gains.

Teleperformance, Michelin and Hermes International ended sharply lower.

Germany’s trade surplus increased in August on an unexpected increase in exports amid a bigger-than-expected decline in imports, official data showed on Wednesday. Exports posted a monthly growth of 1.3% in August following July’s 1.7% increase, Destatis reported. This was the second consecutive increase. Shipments were forecast to fall 1%.