European stocks recover at end of a volatile week

Global stock markets rebounded yesterday, making good some of the heavy losses sustained earlier this week in the wake of the long-running controversy surrounding US President Donald Trump’s contacts with Russia.“There hasn’t been any major developments in relation to Donald Trump, and dealers are cautiously picking up stocks,” said market analyst David Madden at CMC Markets.“We still have a fair bit to go to make up for the losses earlier this week, but while the word ‘impeachment’ isn’t being bandied about as much, investors are taking on more risk,” he added.The Dow was up 0.6% approaching midday in New York.London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index closed 0.5% higher at 7,470.71 points.In the eurozone, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 won 0.4% at 12,638.69 points and the Paris CAC 40 gained 0.7% to 5,324.40 points.The EURO STOXX 50 closed up 0.7% at 3,586.00 points.“It’s been one of the quieter days of the week so far in terms of major news flow or economic data and yet,” said Oanda anlayst Craig Erlam.After US and European indices had reached record peaks at the start of the week, global markets proceeded to slump on claims that Trump pressed his former FBI chief James Comey to drop a probe into ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn’s links to Moscow.It has, meanwhile, been reported that Trump divulged classified information to Russia’s foreign minister, fanning further allegations about his own ties to the country’s leaders.The reports compounded a crisis at the White House that has led to calls for the tycoon to be impeached, fanning fears that his plans for tax cuts and ramped up infrastructure spending could be knocked off course.US dealers — who on Wednesday saw Wall Street suffer its heaviest losses since Trump’s November election — were cheered Thursday by better-than-forecast jobs claims figures and manufacturing data, helping the three main indexes to post small gains.But the dollar fell against its main rivals, while oil prices climbed above $50 per barrel ahead of next week’s Opec meeting that markets expect to result in the cartel at least sticking by a recent deal to cut crude output.Online trading firm IG’s Chris Beauchamp said the Opec meeting is shaping up to be “a make or break moment for oil prices”. He said warned investors “could come away with burnt fingers if the cartel fails to live up to expectations” about the ability to reduce oversupply in the market.Oil traders were also following closely the presidential election in Iran, one of the world’s biggest crude producers and a key member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec).