By Tommy Stubbington and Clare Connaghan
European stocks edged higher Wednesday, notching a seventh
straight day of gains, helped by signs that the U.S. economy
continues to improve.
Elsewhere, the ruble weakened after Russia's finance minister
said the country would resume buying foreign currencies for its
depleted reserves fund in the coming days.
The benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 index closed 0.2% higher, with
investors looking ahead to Thursday's European Central Bank policy
meeting.
Expectations that the central bank could introduce further
stimulus measures to stave off dangerously low inflation have
buoyed markets over the past week, but many analysts and investors
believe this week could be too soon for further steps.
"With the recent data on inflation the ECB has been pushed into
a corner, but we don't believe they will do anything in a hurry,"
said Patrick Moonen, senior equity strategist at ING Investment
Management. Mr. Moonen is bullish on European equities due to
relatively cheap valuations and the potential for corporate
earnings growth.
Germany's DAX added 0.2% while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 closed 0.1%
higher. Italian stocks lagged behind, falling 1.0% as banks gave up
some of their recent gains.
The moves came as the S&P 500 rose above Tuesday's record
high, after private-sector employment rose nearly in line with
forecasts in March, according to data compiled by Automatic Data
Processing and Moody's Analytics. Although the report fell slightly
short of forecasts, it helped cement the perception that the
world's largest economy is strengthening after some weak data early
this year, analysts said.
"The market does appear to be gradually becoming more confident
on the U.S. economy as the data slowly improves," said Derek
Halpenny, European head of global markets research at Bank of
Tokyo-Mitsubishi, said.
Reassurance from U.S. Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen on
Monday--that low interest rates are still required to support the
economy--continued to underpin sentiment across markets.
In other news, the ruble weakened more than 1.1%, as the dollar
rose as high as 35.47 rubles after Russian Finance Minister Anton
Siluanov's comments.
"The reason they [the Russian authorities] are doing it now is
they have the view the situation has calmed down and that
additional dollar purchases aren't going to push the [ruble any
lower]," said Peter Kinsella, a currencies strategist at
Commerzbank in London.
Russia's currency slumped to record low levels against the
dollar and euro in early March as concerns over the country's
actions in neighboring Ukraine hit markets. In March, Russia's
central bank sold foreign currencies at its fastest clip since
January 2009 to prop up the ruble.
The ruble has staged a recovery recently and currently trades at
35.286 against the buck, up around 4% from the record low it hit
March 3.
Elsewhere in currency markets, the euro weakened slightly ahead
of the ECB rate decision.
In corporate news, Deutsche Börse AG fell after U.S. authorities
launched a criminal investigation into whether Clearstream Banking
SA, a unit of Deutsche Börse, violated money-laundering laws and
Iran sanctions.
Write to Tommy Stubbington at tommy.stubbington@wsj.com and
Clare Connaghan at clare.connaghan@wsj.com