AFP
European stock markets were subdued yesterday, as investors tracked news from Ukraine, shrugging off gains in Asia and eurozone bond yields that hit another record low, dealers said.
European stock markets ended mixed, with Frankfurt’s main DAX index falling 0.19% to 9,569.71 points.
London’s benchmark FTSE 100 gained 0.12%, ending on 6,830.66 points, while in Paris the CAC 40 climbed 0.04% to 4,395.26 points as investors digested the formation of a new French government.
The Spanish index IBEX35 rose by 0.32%, a total of 33.70 points, reaching 10,858 yesterday.
“Traders are sitting on their hands as they await further developments from the Ukrainian situation,” said analyst David Madden at trading firm IG.
“Reports suggest that relations between Kiev and Moscow are improving but traders are not rushing out to buy stocks just yet.”
Eurozone bond yields fell to new record low levels, pushed down by a belief that the European Central Bank may adopt quantitative easing to inject funds into the economy and ward off deflation.
On Tuesday, European stocks had jumped higher, following comments from the head of the European Central Bank last week.
“Eurozone stocks have pulled back a bit this morning as the excitement about additional easing from the ECB has cooled off, but with the next interest rate decision a little over a week away, we could be looking at another rally before the week is out,” added Madden.
In foreign exchange activity on Wednesday, the European single currency rose to $1.3195 from $1.3169 late in New York on Tuesday.
The euro was unchanged from 79.60 pence late in New York on Tuesday, while the pound edged up to $1.6575 from $1.6544.
The price of gold meanwhile fell to $1,282.75 an ounce, from $1,286 on Tuesday on the London Bullion Market.
Meanwhile, New York stocks traded sideways strong gains on Tuesday when the Conference Board said consumer confidence rose in August for a fourth straight month, to its strongest level since February 2008.
Durable goods orders also surged in July to a new monthly record.
By early afternoon on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.08% to 17,120.02 and the tech-rich Nasdaq had edged 0.01% higher to 4.571.23 points.
The broad-based S&P 500 was up 0.01% to 2,000.23 after ending Tuesday 0.11% higher to 2,000.02, above the 2,000 benchmark for the first time.
“The S&P 500 traded flat early on as investors on Wall Street struggled to justify higher equity values owing to a lack of economic data releases throughout the day,” said Kash Kamal, an analyst at Sucden Research.
