Europe close: Stocks mostly higher despite more hawkish ECB
Stocks on the Continent finished higher, despite relatively hawkish comments from the European Central Bank's chief economist.
Speaking in Frankfurt, the ECB's usually dovish Peter Praet said rate-setters would discuss the exact timing of the central bank's exit from quantitative easing when they met next week, with his remarks sending both the euro and Eurozone government bond yields bounding higher.
But more constructive news on the global trade front helped to steady sentiment.
"Sentiment is positive in Europe as trade talks between the US and China appear to be making progress. Beijing has offered to buy $70bn-worth of US goods in exchange for having no further tariffs imposed on Chinese imports to the US. President Trump likes to play hard ball and it seems his tactic is working," said David Madden at CMC Markets.
Critically as well, Italian sovereign bond markets found a bid following early selling, helping to reverse early losses that saw the country's risk premium widen to 253 basis points, versus 240 the day before. Even so, by the end of the day the risk spread versus German bunds lay at 247.
Despite that, Milan's FTSE Mibtel added 0.26% or 57.44 points to finish at 21,807.59, ending the day well above its intra-session lows of 21,416.49.
Meanwhile, the benchmark Stoxx 600 finished essentially unchanged at 386.88, alongside a 0.34% or 42.94 point advance for the German Dax to 12,830.07.
It was Spain's Ibex 35 however which paced gains, adding 1.09% or 84.30 points to 9,791.60.
French issues were the main drag, with Paris's Cac-40 slipping by 0.06% or 3.39 points to 5,457.56, after having started the day higher.
Overnight, reports had emerged that Beijing had offered to boost its purchases of US goods by between $25bn and $75bn in 2018.
In other news, INE reported Spain's industrial production at up by 1.9% year-on-year in April, which was considerably weaker than the 5.1% rise that markets had forecast.
Meanwhile, in Ireland, the Central Statistics Office reported that the rate of unemployment dipped by a tenth of a percentage point in May from the previous month's level, to 5.8%.