By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch Hopes for OPEC oil-production cut
tempered in Vienna
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European stocks rose Tuesday, with
German equities extending gains after data confirmed modest
quarterly growth for the eurozone's largest economy.
In Frankfurt, Germany's DAX 30 index climbed 0.8% to 6,731.14,
the move pushing the index's month-to-date gain to 5.7%. Germany's
Destatis statistics agency said gross domestic product rose 0.1% in
the third quarter. The agency earlier this month issued a
preliminary GDP reading of 0.1% growth. The contraction in the
second quarter was revised to 0.1% from a previous estimate of
0.2%.
Germany's narrow avoidance of recession in the third quarter was
aided by more spending among consumers as investment fell,
particularly in machinery and equipment.
The European Central Bank will discuss the possibility of
additional stimulus measures at its meeting in December and assess
what impact actions such as recently launched purchases of
asset-backed securities are having on the broader economy, ECB
executive board member Benoît Coeuré said, in an interview with
Bloomberg Television on Monday.
On Friday, ECB President Mario Draghi signaled the central bank
is set to expand its asset-purchase program, spurring speculation
the ECB may start buying government bonds.
The effect of the "dovish" comments are "broadly why the DAX is
up strongly," said Richard Perry, market analyst at Hantec Markets,
in an interview Tuesday.
Utilities E.ON SE and RWE AG topped the DAX as they each rose
3.1%, and financial-sector heavyweight Deutsche Bank AG ended up
1.9%. All but seven of the DAX's 30 components finished higher. In
Paris, the CAC 40 index rose 0.3% to 4,382.31.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on
Tuesday warned that the eurozone needs a basket of measures to
stave off the threat of deflation, and that weak confidence in the
eurozone is among the risks facing the global economy.
The ECB is likely to decide to launch full-blown quantitative
easing, but when it will happen remains in question, said
Perry.
"The Germans and Austrians are very much against it and keep
saying as much," said Perry. "You've got good German data come out
recently and that's probably not going to help the drive towards
QE. Although on Friday, you've got inflation data and I think it's
going to dip back down to 0.3%. The longer inflation stays at this
very low level, then the argument for QE just comes evermore," he
said. A decision to launch QE would likely not be made until next
year, Perry said.
The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.2% to 346.28.
The U.K.'s FTSE 100 edged up less than 2 points to 6,731.14,
with oil stocks weighing on the index after news reports said a
meeting of officials from Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and
Russian oil giant OAO Rosneft produced no agreement to cut oil
production. There's been some expectation in the market that OPEC
members on Thursday could decide to cut production in a bid to
reduce oversupply of crude. A report by the WSJ.com indicated that
key oil producers, including major OPEC members, were nearing a
compromise what would trim production.
Shares of Kingfisher PLC fell 4.2% following a decline in profit
and sales at the home-improvement retailer.
Among other corporate developments, Spain's Banco Santander SA
rose 1% after the company named former chief financial officer José
Antonio Álvarez its new chief executive. Álvarez replaces group
chief executive Javier Marín who served less than two years in that
role.
Dutch bank ING Groep NV (ING) said it plans to cut 1,700 jobs
over the next three years as it moves to ramp up its
digital-banking operations.
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This event is free, but RSVPs are required. It will be held
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