European shares edged higher yesterday as solid results and upbeat outlooks from Deutsche Bank and British chemicals firm ICI among others stemmed a recent trickle of funds out of equities.
Wall Street lent support as it opened firmer, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index clawing back some of Wednesday's sharp losses, which followed a cautious statement from technology bellwether Cisco Systems.
Weekly jobs data showing the US economic recovery was still struggling to improve the labour market had little impact on European stocks. Initial US jobless claims unexpectedly rose by 17,000 to 356,000 in the last week of January. Analysts had expected jobless claims to dip, but shrugged off the often volatile data ahead of today's key monthly non-farm payrolls number.
"Certainly there's a risk that over the next couple of months we could get an upward surprise on the payrolls because it is certainly overdue," said Ken Wattret, an economist at BNP Paribas.
"When you look at how well the economy is performing it's just a matter of time before payrolls follow suit."
By 1436 GMT the FTSE Eurotop 300 index of pan-European blue chip stocks was 0.3 per cent firmer at 982.0 points, having retreated about two per cent from the 17-month it hit in late January.
"The sell-off we've had ought to be seen in the context of a strong rally over the past few months," said Ian Scott, a strategist at Lehman Brothers.
"There is still a degree of caution out there, so although the actual numbers companies are posting are pretty good, they are unwilling to read those forward and raise guidance substantially, which may have disappointed some investors."
The narrower DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index rose 0.6 per cent to 2,837.9 points.
At the same time the Dow Jones industrial average was 0.2 per cent higher at 10,489.3 points, while the Nasdaq rose 0.8 per cent to 2,030.9 points.
In Europe interest rate policy was in focus with the Bank of England raising rates by a quarter of a point, while the European Central Bank left its benchmark rate steady, as markets had expected.