European shares rise as miners shine; Fed minutes in focus

5:13 am Wednesday, August 21st, 2024

By Pranav Kashyap

(Reuters) -European shares edged up on Wednesday buoyed by gains in miners, while investors awaited the minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s July meeting to gauge the direction of global monetary policy.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index ticked up 0.2% at 513.11 points. The benchmark snapped a five-day winning streak on Tuesday.

Basic resources climbed 1% after Shanghai aluminium futures hit a five-week high on tightness in raw materials supply. [MET/L]

With no data coming out of Europe on Wednesday, investor focus is on the Fed minutes, due at 1800 GMT, which are expected to reinforce a dovish stance.

Preliminary revisions to U.S. labour data, due at 1400 GMT, will also be closely watched amid expectations of a large downward revision.

“The focus will be on U.S. payroll revisions, which, according to Goldman Sachs, could show anything between 600k and 1 million fewer jobs. Should this be the case, it would point to a weaker labour market, potentially raising expectations for a more aggressive rate-cutting cycle from the Fed,” said Fiona Cincotta, senior market analyst at City Index.

Investors were also treading carefully ahead of the Jackson Hole symposium in Wyoming on Friday, where all eyes will be on Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech.

Oil and gas was the top decliner among sectors as oil prices slipped on higher U.S. crude inventories. [O/R]

Among individual stocks, Demant rose to the top of the European benchmark, gaining 3.7% after Morgan Stanley upgraded its rating on the stock to “overweight” from “underweight”.

Alcon fell to the bottom of the STOXX 600, losing 2.8% after the Swiss eye care company reported a smaller-than-expected increase in second-quarter sales.

On a medium-term outlook for European stocks, Aaron Barnfather, portfolio manager at Lazard Asset Management said Europe has become more shareholder-friendly due to the significant amount of buybacks that are taking place.

“That’s a significant opportunity that the international investors haven’t started to focus on yet.”

(Reporting by Pranav Kashyap in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Eileen Soreng)