Europe open: Stocks jump on Trump spending pledges, weaker euro, Chinese data
Stocks on the Continent began the day higher after US president Donald Trump truck pledged higher spending on infrastructure and defence overnight in a speech to Congress.
As of 0830 GMT the benchmark Stoxx 600 was higher by 0.85% to 373.40, while the Dax was rising 1.13% to 11,968.71 and the Cac was ahead by an identical 1.13% to 4,913.08.
Euro/dollar was 0.53% weaker at 1.0538 in early trading after Federal Reserve officials John Williams and James Bullard on Tuesday argued there was a case for higher interest rates. Market odds of a rise jumped to 80%, before settling at 50%.
In Washington, Trump reiterated plans for a $1trn package of infrastructure spending, together with a sharp boost in the defence budget.
CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said Trump's speech contained "little in the way of content about tax policy"
"There were no details about a border adjustment tax, though he did reiterate his commitment to free and fair trade, as well as building the border wall with Mexico," Hewson said.
Also boosting sentiment were stronger than expected readings on China's manufacturing sector.
Caixin's manufacturing sector purchasing managers' index for February rose from 51.0 in January to 51.7 for February. That was marginally below the four-year high of 51.9 reached in December but nevertheless better than the 50.8 consensus forecast.
"February’s PMI readings suggest that the recent pick-up in global demand is keeping China’s recovery mostly intact for now," said Julian Evans-Pritchard, China economist at Capital Economics.
Indices for new export orders hit multi-year highs, Evans-Pritchard added.
To watch out for on the economic calendar on Wednesday, IHS Markit's euro area manufacturing sector PMI data was scheduled for release at 0900 GMT, followed by the latest figures in the States for personal income and spending in January at 1330 GMT and the ISM factory sector PMI at 1500 GMT.
On the corporate front, Fiat Chrysler has been subpoenaed by US federal and state authorities in relation with alleged excess diesel emissions from some of its vehicles, the automaker revealed on Tuesday.
ENI's board approved the issue of up to €2bn in fixed-income securities, possibly in other currencies.