European Stocks Mostly Higher On Soft Inflation Data, Dovish Fed Comments

(RTTNews) - European stocks are mostly higher a little past noon on Wednesday with dovish comments from Fed Governor Christopher Waller on Tuesday raising optimism that the U.S. central bank might cut rate as early as March 24.

Data showing a slowdown in German inflation is contributing as well to the positive mood in the markets.

The pan European is up 0.46%. Germany's DAX is gaining 0.87%, France's CAC 40 is up 0.5% and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 is down marginally. Switzerland's SMI is climbing 0.58%.

In the UK market, Fresnillo is gaining 3.5%. British Land Company, Easyjet, RightMove, Just Eat Takeaway.com and M&G are up 2 to 3%.

Land Securities, Segro, TUI, St. James's Place, JD Sports Fashion, Mondi, Taylor Wimpey, Smurfit Kappa Group, AstraZeneca and Persimmon are advancing 1 to 2%.

Pennon is down by about 3%. Centrica, Rentokil Initial, Standard Chartered and HSBC Holdings are lower by 2 to 2.2%.

In the German market, Infineon is climbing nearly 4.5%. Zalando, Siemens Energy and Siemens are up 3 to 3.7%. BMW is up nearly 2.5% and Vonovia is gaining about 2%.

Daimler Truck Holding, Deutsche Post, Mercedes-Benz, Continental, SAP, Qiagen, Siemens and Porsche are up 1 to 1.8%.

In Paris, WorldLine, Unibail Rodamco, Stellantis, Capgemini, Renault and Michelin are up 2 to 3.1%.

STMicroElectronics, Societe Generale, Saint Gobain, LVMH, Teleperformance, Eurofins Scientific, Dassault Systemes, Publicis Groupe and Airbus Group are gaining 1 to 1.8%.

TotalEnergies is down by about 1.4%, and Alstom is lower by 1.1%. Legrand and Hermes International are down marginally.

On the economic front, data published by the statistical office INSEE showed France's payroll employment increased slightly in the third quarter, rising just 0.1%, or 36,700. The rate was 0.1% in the second quarter.

Nonetheless, payroll employment exceeded the previous year level by 0.8%. Private as well as public payroll employment gained 0.1% each in the third quarter.

Germany's import prices continued to fall in October but the large decreases primarily reflect higher base of comparison, Destatis reported today.

Import prices posted an annual fall of 13% in October after a 14.3% decrease in September. Prices have been falling since March.

"The large decreases are still primarily due to a base effect originating from the high price increases in 2022 as a result of the war in Ukraine," Destatis said.