European stock markets closed yesterday’s sessions narrowly mixed, consolidating sharp gains made last week as hopes for a strong economic recovery offset a litany of bad news from Japan and the Middle East.
Dealers said investors were looking ahead to US data, including the key jobs report due Friday, which many expect to confirm that the world’s largest economy is recovering more strongly.
Updated US data last Friday showed the US economy grew 3.1 per cent in fourth quarter 2010, up from the earlier estimate of 2.8 per cent, and dealers said this had given the markets a real confidence boost to balance the bad news.
The markets have had to cope with concerns over how Japan can rebuild from its worst ever earthquake and nuclear crisis while unrest in the Middle East continues to keep pressure on rising oil prices, stoking inflation fears.
In London, the FTSE 100 index of leading shares up a marginal 0.06 per cent at 5,904.49 points.
In Paris, the CAC 40 edged up 0.12 per cent to 3,976.95 points while in Frankfurt the DAX slipped 0.11 per cent to 6,938.63 points. Other European markets posted a similar mix of modest gains and losses.
Dealers said the markets appear focused on the economic data and not the bad news backdrop of Japan, the Middle East and eurozone debt problems.
“Elsewhere, global equity markets seem disconnected from events in Japan, the Mena (Middle East/North Africa) region and the eurozone,” said Neil MacKinnon, an economist at financial group VTB Capital.
“It is a busy week for economic data, culminating in the latest US non-farm payrolls on Friday,” said IG Index trader Will Hedden in London.
“With this in mind, and considering the strong rally seen for much of last week... the FTSE may well struggle to make any decent progress in the days ahead.”
In New York, stocks edged higher after last week’s sharp gains.
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.16 per cent at around 1605 GMT, with the tech-dominated Nasdaq Composite added 0.07 per cent.
Dealers said better-than-expected US consumer spending figures for January – a gain of 0.7 per cent after 0.3 per cent in December – bolstered the view the US economy is picking up strongly.
“The US equity markets are modestly higher... with a better-than-forecasted increase in personal spending helping to buoy stocks even as the global focus remains on the euro-area debt crisis, Middle East turmoil and the tragedy in Japan,” Charles Schwab analysts said in a note.
In Asian trade earlier, stocks were mostly lower as workers struggled to bring the badly damaged Fukushima nuclear plant under control amid worrying high radiation levels.
Tokyo fell 0.60 per cent, Hong Kong was down 0.39 per cent and Sydney shed 0.19 per cent but Shanghai added 0.21 per cent.