Major European stock markets were on the rise on Wednesday, a day when investors will once again turn their attention to a speech by US Federal Reserve President Jerome Powell.
At 09:00 in Lisbon, the EuroStoxx 600 index gained 0.18% to 512.52 points.
Stock exchanges in London, Paris and Frankfurt rose 0.27%, 0.12% and 0.21%, as did Madrid and Milan, which rose 0.22%.
After opening at its highest, the Lisbon Stock Exchange maintained its trend, with the main PSI index rising 1.15% to 6,727.00 points at 09:00.
This Wednesday, Powell will appear again before the House Financial Services Committee, but this time before the US Congress.
This Wednesday’s session, with China’s inflation rising 0.2% year-on-year in June, below the previous month’s reading, will leave the market with no data to guide it ahead of the U.S. CPI on Thursday and the start of U.S. CPI results on Friday.
Tuesday’s meeting also featured testimony from the Fed president before the Senate Banking Committee.
Jerome Powell assured that despite the modest progress in inflation, it would be “inappropriate” to cut interest rates until “there is greater confidence that it is moving sustainably toward 2%.”
On Thursday, US inflation data for June will be released, one of the key data points of the week.
Wall Street closed mixed after Powell’s statement. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.13% at 39,291.97, off a new high since its inception in 1896 of 40,003.59, confirmed on May 19, while the Nasdaq, established on February 8, 1971, rose 0.14% to a new high of 18,429.29.
Meanwhile, investors continue to analyze the results of the French elections, in which the left registered a major electoral turnaround by winning legislative elections, pushing Marine Le Pen’s far-right into third place.
The political map left after the second round of elections in France predicts a highly divided National Assembly with no clear majority, meaning that the country’s governance is entering a very uncertain phase.
Interest rates on German 10-year bonds, considered the safest in Europe, fell to 2.538% from 2.578% on Tuesday, as did rates in France, which fell to 3.205% from 3.242%.
A barrel of Brent crude for September delivery opened lower on Wednesday, trading on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) Futures Exchange in London at $84.13, down from $84.66 on Tuesday.
In terms of exchange rates, the euro started to fall on the Frankfurt stock market, trading at $1.0824 against $1.0810 in the previous session.