Europe midday: Stocks climb on higher oil prices, dip in euro
Higher oil prices and a weaker euro are buoying stocks on the Continent, despite a raft of negative headlines on the economic front, with a widely-followed German survey of analysts revealing clear concern about the storm clouds that were gathering over global trade.
The German ZEW institute's economic sentiment index for July fell by 8.6 points to stand at -24.7 - its lowest level since August 2012 - amid "great political uncertainty", especially around the possible escalation of the trade war with the US, according to ZEW president Professor Achim Wambach.
Year-to-date ZEW's index had fallen by 45.1 points.
Nevertheless, for the time being at least, investor sentiment was being buttressed by strong gains overnight in US markets.
As of 1203 BST, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was 0.38% or 1.8 points higher to 386.07, alongside a gain of 0.39% or 49.54 points to 12,592.86 for the German Dax and an advance of 0.52% or 113.87 points to 22,148.38 for the FTSE Mibtel.
Euro/dollar meanwhile was down by 0.49% to 1.16994.
In parallel, September-dated Brent crude oil futures on the ICE were adding 1.165% to $78.99 a barrel, driving gains of 1.30% to 357.72 in the Stoxx 600's sector gauge of Oil&Gas stocks.
To take note of, Chinese stocks advanced overnight, following the release of a higher-than-expected reading on factory gate inflation, although the country's currency, the yuan, was again on the back foot.
As an aside, Macquarie's Macro Strategy team was telling clients not to worry about a looming recession in the US at this stage.
"This all suggests that while equity prices are likely to fall once a recession arrives, there is little historical evidence to suggest that equity markets lead recessions," Rich Deverell, Hayden Skilling and David Doyle told clients.
"And given that we expect US growth to remain robust this year and next, those looking to pre-position for recession may be moving too early."
Other economic data published in the euro area on Tuesday was also on the weak side.
Earlier, INSEE ha reported a 0.2% decline in French industrial output during the month of May (consensus: 0.5%), as construction sector activity dropped by 3.4% and manufacturing production declined by 0.6%.
Growth in industrial output also fell shy of forecasts in Italy, where ISTAT reported a month-on-month rise of 0.7% (consensus: 0.8%), as production of durable consumer goods shrank by 1.2%.
Meanwhile, on the corporate front, Airbus boss Tom Enders called on Brussels and EU capitals to be similarly "pragmatic and fair" as HM Government when it came to Brexit.