European stocks tiptoed to a higher close yesterday, ending the week more or less where they started as investors continued to mull mixed corporate and economic news for clues on where markets will head next.
Benchmark indices are still around 14 per cent higher than the five-year intraday lows they plumbed on July 24 but some observers say equity markets are not out of the woods yet.
"People seem to think we've come a long way since the lows last month but we haven't," said Florian van Laar, fund manager at Eureffect asset management in Amsterdam.
"The Dow has added only 70 points this month. The economic climate has deteriorated recently and the corporate figures are not giving any impetus on the upside.
"We've come up, but we can easily go back down again." By 1608 GMT, with only Frankfurt still officially trading, the FTSE Eurotop 300 index of pan-European blue chips was 0.35 per cent higher, having lost 0.4 per cent this week.
The narrower DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index, which has lost nearly 30 per cent this year, was up 1.24 per cent.
France's Vivendi and Sweden's Ericsson were once again the market's ugly sisters, shedding 12.3 and 3.7 per cent respectively due to fears about the former's cashflow situation and the latter's imminent rights issue.
On the upside, Spanish and Italian blue chips rose sharply, having missed out on Thursday's gains due to the Assumption Day holiday.
BBVA, BSCH, Telefonica, Telecom Italia and Generali all added between 3.4 per cent and 5.3 per cent and the Madrid and Milan benchmark indices added over three per cent each.
Otherwise, prices were largely driven by analyst comment on a day when, with the holiday season in full swing, corporate news was sparse and volumes pitifully thin.
Britain's BT Group jumped 6.2 per cent after Banc of America upgraded it to "buy" from "market performer", and British drinks company Diageo slipped four per cent after HSBC reiterated its "sell" recommendation on the stock.
Vivendi's recent woes were compounded by downgrades from both Deutsche Bank and UBS Warburg in the light of this week's poor results and big writedowns.
In the US, the forward-looking University of Michigan consumer sentiment index for August came in at 87.9 against expectations of a reading of 88.3.
"The survey is more-or-less in line with estimates which is a relief as there were rumours of a fall after the disappointing Philadelphia survey last night," said James Carrick, a European economist at ABN AMRO.
The highly-regarded Philadelphia Fed report disappointed markets on Thursday night, slipping slightly when economists had expected it to rise.
Telecoms were the biggest gainer among the sectors, boosted by BT, Telefonica and Deutsche Telekom.
The interim chief executive of the German operator was quoted late on Thursday as saying the company's first half-results, due on August 21, were in line with forecasts.
"The results lie within the range of expectations," Helmut Sihler told yesterday's edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. "They prove that the core business of Telekom is running properly. We had a good first half."
As most of Europe's bourses closed, Wall Street was mixed, with the Dow Jones industrial average slightly weaker and the tech-laden Nasdaq Composite one per cent higher.