By Pranav Kashyap
(Reuters) -European shares rose on Wednesday, as investors awaited key data from the U.S. and the euro zone, while a raft of upbeat corporate updates lifted risk appetite.
The pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.3% to trade near a two-week high, as of 0822 GMT. All regional bourses were trading in positive territory.
The travel and leisure sub-index gained 3.2%, the most among sectors, lifted by a 10.3% surge in Flutter after the world’s largest online betting firm raised its full-year outlook following a better-than-expected second quarter.
Investor sentiment was boosted following data released on Tuesday, which showed U.S. producer prices rose less than anticipated in July. This reinforced market view that cooling inflation will prompt the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates soon.
U.S. consumer prices data, due at 1230 GMT, will be parsed for clues on the health of the world’s largest economy after slowdown fears hurt risk assets globally earlier this month.
Also on investors’ radar will be flash employment and GDP estimates for the euro zone, set to be released at 0900 GMT.
“Investors are very jumpy with every data release because they’re asking is this just a gradual slowdown or is it the beginning of a recession,” Thomas Gehlen, senior market strategist at SG Kleinwort Hambros said.
“Volatility is going be elevated and prices are going to remain sensitive to macroeconomic releases over the next couple of weeks.”
The U.S data will be a significant macroeconomic catalyst – a factor absent in the previous week which contributed to the muted performance of the STOXX 600.
Meanwhile, Britain’s consumer price inflation rose to 2.2% after two months at the Bank of England’s 2% target. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a 2.3% jump.
London’s benchmark FTSE 100 ticked up 0.4%.
In Europe, basic resources lost 1.4% as base metals prices came under pressure due to a bigger-than-expected drop in Chinese lending that worsened sentiment. [MET/L]
Switzerland’s largest bank UBS gained 2.5% after it posted a net profit of $1.14 billion for the second quarter, comfortably surpassing analysts’ forecast.
Straumann soared 13.7% after the dental implant maker announced the sale of its DrSmile aligner business and also raised its full-year outlook.
Thyssenkrupp lost 4.2% after the submarine-to-steel group swung to a net loss in its third quarter due to higher-than-expected costs.
(Reporting by Pranav Kashyap in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Mrigank Dhaniwala)
