Europe midday: Stocks bounce back ahead of Fed decision
Stocks rebounded on Tuesday as investors waited on the US central bank's policy decision due the next day and as officials in Beijing struck a more emollient tone.
Overnight, Wang Shouwen, China's vice commerce minister, said his country was open to trade talks but that Washington had to show sincerity and not put a knife at Beijing's throat.
Traders were also keeping an eye on the recent rise in crude oil prices.
"The bigger concern given some signs of weakening economic data, is that the rises being seen in prices now could result in demand destruction, as consumers find that higher fuel prices trickles down into less money for consumer discretionary items," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.
"The US dollar index slipped back yesterday ahead of the start of this week’s latest FOMC meeting which concludes tomorrow, and is widely expected to see the Federal Reserve raise rates for the third time this year. The decision this week is unlikely to be a market mover in the traditional sense, however policymaker projections could well be, given the strength seen in recent economic data, and it is here that we could see a move in yields and, or the US dollar."
As of 1202 BST, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was ahead by 0.51% or 1.93 points at 384.07, alongside a rise of 0.33% or 41.13 points to 12,392.54 for the German Dax and a gain of 0.30% or 16.17 points to 5,492.11 for the Cac-40.
In parallel meanwhile, euro/dollar was advancing 0.31% to 1.17852 and front month Brent crude oil futures were up by 0.77% to $81.83 a barrel on the ICE.
The economic calendar was very light, although a speech by European Central Bank chief economist, Peter Praet, did catch economists' attention.
Playing down remarks from ECB chief Mario Draghi the day before, according to Praet, the anticipated pace of monetary tightening had not changed since June.
"There was nothing new [in Draghi's speech] Clearly, we see progress in underlying (prices), what is behind the inflation process. But it’s a long process and conditioned on very easy monetary conditions," Praet said.
Significantly, two days before Praet's remarks in London, Austrian central bank governor, Ewald Nowotny, had urged a quicker pace of tightening.
Elsewhere, INSEE did report a small improvement in its French business climate index, which it said had risen from a reading of 102.0 for July to 104.0 in September.