LONDON – European stocks rallied on Wednesday as markets attempted to reverse a negative decline in the previous trading session.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 was up 2% in early trade, with travel and leisure stocks adding 2.8% to lead gains as all sectors and major bourses entered positive territory.
Just Eat Takeaway shares soared more than 16% after Amazon agreed to take a 2% stake in its U.S. subsidiary GrubHub to give access to its Prime members.
At the bottom of Europe’s blue-chip index, ailing German gas giant Uniper slipped 5.7% as it resumes bailout talks with the German government.
The higher trade for Europe comes after the pan-European Stoxx 600 closed up 2.1% on Tuesday as fears of a recession mounted in the region.
The July Sentix economic index showed on Monday that investor sentiment in the 19-nation euro zone fell to its lowest level since May 2020, signaling an “inevitable” recession.
The euro fell to its lowest level in two decades on Tuesday as fears of a recession mounted, gas prices soared and the war in Ukraine showed no sign of abating.
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US stocks also fell on Tuesday before embarking on a late recovery. Investors in the US are awaiting the release of the Federal Reserve’s minutes from its latest FOMC meeting on Wednesday.
This week’s US data releases also include Friday’s June jobs report. Dow Jones estimates that job growth likely slowed in June, with 250,000 nonfarm jobs added, compared with 390,000 in May. The economists surveyed expect an unemployment rate of 3.6%.