Euro Watch

Angela Merkel was today revealed on top of the Forbes List of Most Powerful Women, reflecting her standing in global politics and diplomacy amongst her contemporaries from the business and political world.

The German Chancellor came out on top of a list that included US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the Queen. The list also covered notable businesswomen and world leaders from around the world.

After her appointment to power, Merkel has been instrumental in the return of the German economy to strength, whilst becoming known internationally for her commitment to climate change and cutting carbon emissions.

Furthemore, with the sub-prime lending crisis hindering growth across the world, German markets remained fairly resilient in the wake of an almost certain credit crunch across the world.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has just returned from an official state visit to China, in which she urged the fastest rising economy in the world to do more for climate change and the future of the environment.

However, after findings last month that German investor confidence had significantly dropped for the coming six months, many feared the German market would be hit after the fallout from the US sub-prime sector became known.

Whilst her critics may have been quick to highlight the fact that the markets were less confident for the immediate future, Merkel has maitained momentum within the economy and helped work strongly towards cutting unemployment nationwide.

The German economy had been performing under par as compared to some of its European neighbours, but has since outperformed France and Italy off the back of slow Eurozone-wide growth over the second quarter of 2007.

The Queen was ranked at number 23 on the list, well up from her ranking last year, whilst Singapore-based Temasek Holdings boss Ho Ching was third on the worldwide list.

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Unemployment in the German economy fell by a much shorter number than had been expected, which may be a sign of problems in the labour market, according to official figures released today.

The figures released today by Germany’s Labour Office show that unemployment fell by just 15,000 to 3.75 million, despite analysts predictions of a much larger fall representing the ongoing recovery of the German economy.

Analysts had predicted that, based on a number of other factors, employment would have increased by around 30,000 – hence double the actual outcome of the last month’s swing.

It is thought the ongoing sub-prime lending crisis in the US, combined with a decline in domestic investor confidence are responsible for the lower falls, which are seen as an indicator of poor business growth and development in the current world economic climate.

With credit coming at an increased premium through ongoing liquidity problems with US lenders, business funding is becoming less available for expansion projects, which could be responsible for the smaller than predicted drop in unemployment numbers.

Whilst analysts may have predicted a larger rise, the German authorities are quick to point out that the number of unemployed workers has fallen, and the economy is making good progress on the road to recovery, after several years of sluggish economic growth and record levels of unemployment.

Alexander Koch of Unicredit remained optimistic for the future of the labour market, citing continued steady growth in business as a driving force to lower unemployment over the coming months.

“Assuming no dramatic slowdown of the global growth dynamic due to the current financial market turbulence, the jobless rate is expected to remain steady without any major upward swings.”

Trading on the DAX exchange in Frankfurt was not deterred by the news, and continued to grow despite the negative impact of trading in the US, and this potentially damaging figure.

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Market nerves continued to show through the course of trading this morning, with investors slow to commit to further investment in corporate securities.

Yet again, markets have awoken to fears of another bad day stateside, after continuing unrest in the sub-prime mortgage market, which has made investors in Europe shy away from buying.

Brokers from the investment bank Merrill Lynch have fuelled the early sell offs across Europe by issuing a warning to the effect of the credit crunch on profits at banks and other lenders.

As a result, markets have experienced some ups and downs through the course of trade this morning, with analysts predicting significant losses once the Dow gets up and running for the day.

By the middle of today, the FTSE 100 index had actually grown slightly, clawing back around 24 points on yesterday’s losses as investors look to snap up bargain shares in quick trades, and was sitting at 6126.

Meanwhile, in Germany the DAX exchange has again declined over the morning, with the impact from the morning in the US markets still to come. By midday, the DAX had lost around about 11 points, taking it to 7419.

The CAC 40 in Paris had again moved similarly to the FTSE 100, garnering some upwards momentum prompted by cheap share deals, up by 26.89 points to 5501.1.

However, analysts are predicting that the gains will not be strong enough to fight off losses on the Dow Jones and NASDAQ when they open later in the day, reflecting the belief that indexes across Europe will close down overall at the closing bell.

In trade today in Asia, the Japanese Nikkei closed down by 1.7% on the back of yesterday’s trading from the US which showed largely negative share sell offs across the board.

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Stock markets throughout the European Union have dramatically fallen in the wake of heavy losses stateside at the close of trade today.

After upward momentum in trade towards the end of last week, ongoing news of the decade low housing sales in the US over the last month have led investors across Europe and the USA to lose total confidence in market investments.

Much of the day’s disastrous trading was spurred by heavy losses on the Dow Jones index stateside. The major US index reported losses of around 2% over the course of today alone – its biggest shed in value since the first week of this month.

Securities in banks and investment managers were significantly down on the day, with the ongoing fear of a liquidity crisis refreshed by continuing bad news from the troubled US housing market.

The Dow Jones closed down by a staggering 280.28 points to 13041.9, whilst the NASDAQ exchange was also proportionally down by a similar level, losing 60.61 points to 2500.6.

In France, the leading CAC 40 index was heavily down on the day, matching the same scale of the losses on the Dow. At the close of trde, the index had fallen by 116.37 points, closing at 5474.2.

In Germany, the recently more stable DAX exchange was also heavily down, losing 55.75 points to close at 7430.2, with a key study last week revealing a downturn in German market confidence.

In London, the FTSE 100 index was similarly down losing 117.90 points over the course of the day’s trade to 6102.2, completing the all round red screen results of European trade today.

Analysts are predicting the results to continue even further into the red tomorrow, with the possibility of some upturn in trading resulting from ‘bargain’ buys.

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Germany has today announced that it believes China should be doing more to tackle climate change, on the first day of an official state visit to Beijing.

Chancellor Angela Merkel took time to urge Chinese authorities to clamp down on major polluters and emissions, in an attempt to help reverse the effects of global warming and bring the world’s fastest growing economy in line with presently developed nations.

Whilst her comments were taken on board, the Chinese government maintained that during a period of such rampant economic growth, monitoring carbon emissions was an impossible task.

The Chinese economy has seen astronomical economic growth and empowerment over the last decade or so, with analysts predicting it could soon become the world’s largest economy.

However, it has also been heavily criticised internationally for not doing enough to tackle climate change, with many of its major corporations amongst some of the worst polluters in the region.

China have taken some steps towards cutting carbon emissions without affecting growth, and has taken a hard line through banning certain sources of private funding to those it deems to be the worst offenders.

However China feels it should be allowed the same chance to grow and pollute that other developed nations have over the last few hundred years, and further, that any overly strenuous measures would hinder their chances of further economic growth over the coming decades.

The Chancellor will continue her state visit to China over the next few days, where climate change looks set to remain high on the agenda.

With China exempt from the Kyoto protocol, there is strictly no international obligation on the government to reduce carbon emissions over the short term.

German premier Ms Merkel is renowned internationally for her active diplomatic role in promoting climate change across the world.

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Power companies throughout the European Union are benefiting from billions of euros in windfall revenues each year as a result of a loophole in carbon emission regulations, according to a leading economists report today.

The companies are awarded free so-called ‘emissions permits’, allowing them to generate millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide without having to foot the bill. Furthermore, the same companies are continuing to charge the consumer for the cost price of the permits, leading to billions in ‘free money’ every single year.

The loophole comes as part of an EU scheme to tackle climate change and carbon emissions from corporate polluters, which puts a price of 20 euros a tonne on carbon dioxide emissions.

In theory, the practice is designed to levy a financial burden on the heaviest polluters to encourage environmentally friendly, carbon efficient business.

However, power companies are allowed vast quantities of free permits, which remain billable to the end consumer, resulting in the legal multi-billion euro discrepancy.

Chief Economist of the Carbon Trust Michael Grubb has quantified the benefits to power companies at around 20 billion euros a year, reflecting the magnitude of this practice in the European Union.

However, some experts fear that the figure is much worse than that, when cleaner forms of energy production that output less carbon dioxide are taken into account.

Nuclear and wind energy companies still benefit from the ‘emissions premium’ price for their power, despite the fact that they use less emissions every year, accounting for an even steeper discrepancy than that calculated.

With carbon permits accounting for between 6% and 12% of energy prices in the EU, analysts are calling for measures to be introduced to tackle the current loophole allowing profiteering at the expense of the consumer across the European Union.

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The European Union has today announced it will remove its ban on the export of UK produced beef as of the end of this week, after top regional vets inspected the range of the condition.

The EU had until now banned any form of animal exports from the UK after foot and mouth disease was discovered at several UK farms over the last week and a half.

Whilst overall the ban will be lifted, restrictions will still remain in place in the 10km radius surrounding the original outbreak as a precautionary measure for the time being.

The decision was made today by a panel of EU representative vets, after British produce was given the all clear to resume pan-European export.

British beef and animal products, which account for significant trade with the UK through Europe and further afield had been completed halted after the discovery of the condition on two farms in early August.

However, after swift precautionary actions by the UK authorities, the condition has yet to be discovered elsewhere in the UK, prompting today’s decision.

The EU decision will allow meats from the UK to travel within the European Union, although many countries still have international restrictions on UK produce for fear of spreading the disease.

Northern Ireland will also now be able to move its animal products through the UK as normal when the ban is lifted on Saturday.

The last foot and mouth epidemic in the UK of several years ago lead to the widespread culling of livestock throughout the mainland, and cost millions of pounds in damages to businesses and the economy as a whole.

International reaction to the latest outbreak was designed to prevent the condition from infecting more cattle, which appears so far to have achieved its goal.

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The European Union has today announced it is to resume financing Gaza’s sole power plant, after days of black outs in the troubled territory.

The European Union, which supplies fuel for the plant, suspended its investment last week amidst fears that radical Islamic group Hamas could end up profiting from the measure.

The Gaza region has been completely sealed off from Israel after Hamas took control, leading to what many have feared could be a humanitarian crisis.

After Islamic group Hamas seized control of the territory around two months ago, the EU has sought assurances that tax will not be charged on electricity derived from its own funding, for fear that it might be seen to condone or support the radical movement.

The European Union announced that supply to Gaza would resume on Wednesday, after days of black outs and power shortages in the region leading to the closure of businesses and schools for the duration, as power became a premium

However, the move is still only being billed as provisional, pending further audits and investigations of the way electricity revenues are distributed. Should auditors encounter any discrepancies in the way funds are being distributed, analysts have predicted with some certainty that the EU could withdraw altogether from the region.

With Hamas blacklisted by the EU as a terror group, and indication that money raised could support their movement would be sufficient for the EU to withdraw funding altogether on a more permanent basis, which would again leave residents suffering the brunt of days without power.

However, Hamas criticised the EU’s moves as amounting to nothing short of a ‘collective punishment’ for the innocent people of Gaza for political motive.

EU officials will shortly move in to examine the structure of electricity revenue generation in the impoverished, troubled region.

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Stock markets throughout major European economies have today closed up on trade yesterday, but only just after market jitters continued to plague trading.

Corporate securities across the Eurozone were traded gingerly throughout the day, as investors and analysts kept the threat of the credit crunch in mind.

In London, the Financial Times Stock Exchange of 100 companies (FTSE 100) was up by 7.40 points on the day, easing it marginally to 6086.1 by the closing bell – up 0.12% on the day.

Meanwhile, the main market in Paris, the CAC 40 was among the biggest gains of the day, rising by 19.40 points to 5418.8 by the end of the day.

In Frankfurt the DAX 30 exchange of the top 30 German corporate securities echoed similar sentiments to the CAC, growing as it did by 17.22 points, despite rumours that German investor confidence may be in for a decline.

On a day in which the Federal Reserve announced its intention to use every tool in its armoury against the credit crunch, markets in Europe at least seem less than impressed, with only marginal growth in the stock indexes.

After news from London that the Bank of England has upped its loans to commercial banks, analysts are predicting uncertainty in European markets could continue towards the end of this week, with a high possibility of negative trading by the start of next week.

The ongoing crisis in the US sub-prime lending sector is continuing to be a source of grief for markets and lenders across Europe and further afield. With uniform tightening lending policies across the Eurozone, analysts are predicting that the effects of the credit crunch could be forced upon businesses and lenders with poorer credit.

Experts are forecasting that after moderate recovery at the start of this week, markets could continue the trends of last week as the days progress.

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The European Union has maintained its decision to withdraw funding for the territory’s only power plant, demanding a guarantee that Hamas will refrain from taxing electricity.

The European Union has until now heavily funded power within the region, which was withdrawn four days ago after a disagreement with Hamas as to the way in which the revenues from electricity are divided.

The news comes as yet another blow to the Gaza region, after its economic isolation from Israel since so-called extremists Hamas took control two months ago.

The EU, which funds fuel to drive the plant, has refused to be linked with the Hamas organisation. The Islamic group, which it considers to be on its blacklist of terrorist organisations, must agree not to generate revenue from the power supply funded by the EU, in a bid to ensure the EU does not indirectly fund the organisation.

On the fourth consecutive day without electricity, the European Union are remaining strong on their demands, refusing to commit to returning funding until they receive the reassurance they require.

Meanwhile, business in the impoverished region has been badly hit, with many forced to close in the wake of a lack of power, whilst the lucky few with electric generators are feeling the increased cost on their profit margins.

Despite the deadlock, the EU remains on standby to continue the supply ‘within a matter of hours’, should Hamas agree not to tax electricity.

Aid groups around the world have criticised the situation in Gaza, with many fearing a potential humanitarian crisis could soon be on the cards.

With the hard line approach of both Israel and the EU of recent weeks, it is the people of Gaza that are suffering as a result of the region’s economic and political problems.

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Factory price inflation in Germany, one of the Eurozone’s major driving forces in economic terms, is down to its lowest rate in over three years, according to figures released today.

The figures released by the Federal Statistics Office showed a fall in price inflation at factories, which analysts have attributed largely to a decrease in the cost of fuel through lower crude oil prices.

After a week of disappointment for the Eurozone, with both France and Germany adding to Italy’s collection of poor results, today’s news is being well received as a sign of control in the powerhouse economy.

Furthermore, with poor growth forecast, and the ongoing credit saga across the pond, trading in European securities had been significantly down over the course of this week and last.

Inflation of the price of manufacturing was up by 1.1% on the year in July, compared to 1.7% on the year on June, whilst energy prices fell by 2.8% on the year.

The price of oil had fallen by 2.6%, due to a combination of naturally falling prices and a strengthening Euro, making imports from foreign nations more affordable, despite its balanced negative effect on domestic exports.

Today’s news was well received on the stock market, with the announcement that the inflation rate had fallen to its lowest in over three years.

With the cost of energy stripped from the equation, producer price inflation for the year on July was calculated at 2.4%, reflecting the degree to which falling power costs have impacted upon price inflation.

The DAX gained 108.22 points over the day, despite poor trading over the course of the morning. Combined with positive trading on American markets, the fall in factory price inflation helped turnaround the stock exchange after a disastrous week all round for the Eurozone and the European economy.

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Inflation across the Eurozone has been recorded as falling over the month of July, according to official regional figures released today.

Price rises across the 13-strong Eurozone region were down on last month’s figures, according to the Eurostat report released early this morning.

From 1.9% in June, inflation fell to 1.8% through July, remaining within the European Central Bank’s guideline rate of 2%.

Amongst some of the most significant contributors to inflation were tobacco and alcohol and leisure sectors, which continue to support much of the price rises across the Eurozone month on month.

Despite today’s news, analysts have still widely predicted the European Central Bank will raise interest rates by a quarter of a percent when they next meet in early September.

However, with poor growth figures released from three of the major economies in the region over the last week, a further interest rate rise may even further suppress the regeneration effort.

With ongoing fears of a lack of credit availability on a global level, spawned largely from the US sub-prime lending sector, the European Central Bank last week joined the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan in offering cash aid to rescue their respective finance and lending industries.

However, many analysts have claimed the move of the European Central Bank in injecting liquidity into finance and considering raising interest rates simultaneously is contradictory, calling for flexibility and sensibility to prevail when the bank meets to decide its interest rate policy next month.

“It’s a crazy situation of a central bank raising rates and at the same time adding liquidity into the system. What is the message the central bank is putting across by doing that?”

The news is expected to have some impact on trading across European markets over the course of the morning.

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Stock markets across Europe tumbled by the closing bell yesterday, starting the morning’s trade significantly down after renewed fears of a worldwide credit scarcity.

The ongoing US mortgage lending crisis and the recent emergency intervention of central banks worldwide were at the centre of renewed fears as to the future of loan availability worldwide, turning investors away from risky securities in their droves.

Asian markets were also heavily in the red during the night, after similar falls during trading across the globe, reflecting the truly international scale of the troubled US economy.

Any gains experienced by the FTSE at the start of the week were all but eradicated after it lost 1.21% by close yesterday. Meanwhile, around central Europe both the Dax and the Cac in France and Germany respectively experienced heavy losses, taking their indexes even further down.

Market confidence was further dented by news from France and Germany that economic growth over the second quarter had remained slow, only days after similar reports from Italy, which were amalgamated to paint a poor picture of the health of the European economy.

With three of the Eurozone’s most powerful assets reporting slender growth, investors were set in a panic about the future of the worldwide economy, when coupled with the ongoing situation across the pond.

Stocks in financial and asset management securities were down considerably with the fears of credit crunch looming large, whilst insurance markets across the Eurozone also took a tumble with credit fears playing a major role in the sell-offs.

The figures, combined with poor trading over the first half of the day, reflect a widespread concern as to the health of the world economy, casting a doubt over the immediate future of trade on the region’s once buoyant stock exchanges.

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European powerhouses France and Germany both saw sluggish growth over the second quarter below analyst expectations, according to figures released today.

The economies, responsible for much of the economic strength of the European Union, performed poorly over the second quarter as compare to analyst predictions, sparking fears that the EU may fail to meet its current growth targets.

Both the French and German economies saw growth of a paltry 0.3% over the second quarter of this year, to June, compared to similar growth across the Euro zone of just 0.3%.

Growth across the Union last quarter was recorded at 0.7%, reflecting a sharp decline in growth in the region.

Experts have predicted the German slowdown to be but a temporary state of affairs, with predictions suggesting the current construction sector problems could be responsible for the hitch in growth, which should no have a lasting effect on next quarter’s results.

Meanwhile, the French economy is thought to be suffering more significant underlying economic problems, after growth had been forecast at a half percent for the second quarter.

With investment and corporate expansion flat throughout the period in France, analysts are predicting that it may take some more time for the French economy to turnaround – news which will undoubtedly have an impact on the wider European set up.

The Euro-zone has been hit badly over recent weeks, with news coming from Italy of similar sluggish growth to today’s reports.
While some have described analyst predictions as ambitious, it is widely held to be indicative of poor economic performance throughout the region.

The threat of bank liquidity issues from the US and poor business investment are considered to be at the heart of the problem. Stock markets across Europe have continued last week’s downward trend, falling in line with today’s poor quarterly figures.

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The European Central Bank has today announced further measures to help redress the credit shortage in Eurozone lending.

The package unveiled today, totalling an additional 48 billion euros, is designed to add to last week’s 95 billion euro pledge to banks and lenders across the thirteen Eurozone countries.

Analysts had forecast dire consequences arising from a global credit shortage, including an indication that a global recession may be the result of an international credit crunch.

After ongoing reverberations from the US sub-prime lending market, and further warnings of a looming credit crunch, the European Central Bank’s decision to offer further support to finance sectors comes on a day in which both Japan and the US have also agreed further intervention was necessary to prevent a global credit crisis.

Markets across the world were hit badly towards the end of last week after the European Central Bank took the initiative and was the first central monetary authority to propose a remedial package to help struggling banks and mortgage lenders maintain liquidity.

However, today’s move has been taken as more of a reassurance for markets, which closed strongly up on last week’s figures after reinvigorated investors took to buying up bargain-priced shares.

Only last month, the Governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King expressed his view that the US sub-prime lending market had not yet caused a global crisis.

After last week’s widespread credit crunch paranoia, it appears that the true effect of the sub-prime situation may be closer to global catastrophe than the Bank of England had at first envisaged.

While the additional support is welcomed, many analysts fear that the continuing problem in the US mortgage lending market will haunt banks across the world until a suitable resolution is found for the long term.

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Italy has seen growth of a meagre 0.1% over the last quarter according to statistics released today.

The stagnant growth in such a significant Eurozone economy has led to analyst concerns over the potential for growth across the rest of Europe, despite positive projections for the coming year.

Experts had predicted a much more significant growth over the second quarter in line with first quarter growth of 0.3%, which has prompted fears as to optimism in Europe-wide growth projections.

The Italian economy, which has been performing comparatively poorly over recent years in line with its major European counterparts, was forecast to grow by 0.4% in terms of GDP over the second quarter.

Meanwhile, France and Germany have also released significant economic indicators over the course of the day, reflecting a more general trend toward decline throughout Europe.

Paris reported a half percent decline in manufacturing and industrial output over the last quarter as a result of slowing car exports and poor agricultural trade, amongst other factors.

Germany likewise reported a decline in output over the course of June leading to speculation that the European economy as an entity has been underperforming in recent months.

Despite the fall in output, the European Central Bank has labelled growth in the country as one of the major contributors to its decision to increase central interest rates in recent months.

With ambitious growth forecast throughout Europe, poor results from some of the region’s most prevalent economies is causing analysts to question previous predictions.

Annually, the Italian economy grew by just 1.8% over the course of the second quarter compared to 2.3% over the first months of the year.

Growth for the year in Italy is currently forecast at 2% from 1.9% last year, showing a gradual marginal growth strategy for the underperforming economy.

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The European Central Bank today announced a substantial cash injection to support the potential crisis in lending across Europe, which could lead to a credit crunch and economic recession.

Banks across Europe have increased the cost of inter-bank borrowing, representing the increasing risk and lack of liquidity within the financial industry.

The aid package was announced today to the tune of 95 billion euros, in support of banks and mortgage lenders facing liquidity problems, and is designed to inject new life into Euro zone lending to prevent credit and liquidity issues over the coming weeks.

The European Central Bank will introduce the aid as a cash investment, making it the biggest intervention in financial markets by the central bank since after 9/11 six years ago.

With the threat of a worldwide credit crunch, business growth and expansion may be at risk without the finance to back it up, which could in turn stint economic growth and potentially lead to recession on a worldwide scale.

As a result, markets across Europe and the US closed significantly down over the course of today, with fears of a worsening global economic climate over the coming few weeks.

After a week of recovery in European shares, the news was taken as a serious indicator of things to come, and prompted a major sell-off throughout the second half of the day.

In the US, the Federal Reserve is also rumoured to be considering a similar aid package to help financial institutions hit by the US sub-prime lending scandal, in a bid to aid economic recovery in the region.

Despite the US intervention, thought to be in the region of $24 billion, President Bush has tried to alleviate market worries by anticipating a ‘soft landing’ for markets across the globe.

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Stock markets across the European continent maintained their strong growth of recent days through trading today.

Throughout Europe, trading was consistently up today as the stock markets maintain their recovery of recent days since last week’s fall.

Despite heavy losses in world securities, fuelled largely by US economic problems, stock markets across the world have performed well over the last few days.

Many had been suffering from a widespread downturn in trade which now appears to be long forgotten, as green sweeps the board at the closing bell through Europe and further afield.

However, today’s trading appears to have continued the recovering trend of this week, which has seen particularly strong growth in markets throughout Europe and the rest of the world.

The DAX, Germany’s exchange of securities on the leading 30 companies, had grown by over half a percent by the half way stage today, whilst in London the FTSE had continued its growth of recent days by over 0.6%.

In Paris, the CAC grew by almost one percent, whilst the Euro-wide DJ Stoxx 50 grew by roughly the same margin, after positive trading throughout the course of this week.

The growth today is thought to have been sparked by news from the Federal Reserve in the US that interest rates will remain at 5.25% for the next month.

On top of that, the Governor of the Bank of England has played down the crisis in US housing, which has been well received by stock markets in the US and across Europe today.

Insurance companies maintained the strong performance shown early this week, as financial institutions across Europe have been propped by decreasing bad debts.

In Germany, pharmaceutical company Bayer grew by an astonishing 3.84% over the course of trade today after announcing very good results for the last quarter.

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Stock markets across Europe have performed strongly today, after several days of sluggish performance spawned by US economic worry.

At the close of trade today, markets across Europe have continued the growth seen yesterday after last week’s terrible performance on the US stock market.

The recovery in European stocks over this week has reversed last weeks trend of poor performance, coming from investor concern over the US economy.

With continuing problems in the housing market, and the ongoing commercial crisis in the sub-prime lending market, the US economy has done little to inspire investor confidence over the past few weeks.

And with the impact of poor company results in the US, and the resultant impact of trading on the major US stock markets, the rest of the world has suffered the knock-on effects of the situation across the pond.

By around mid-date today, the FTSE had risen by over 1.2% on the day to 6,263.40. Similarly the DAX rose by approaching 1%, and the CAC in Paris rose by just under 1.6% to 5,619.38.

The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 rose by almost 1.6% over the course of the morning, whilst the US Dow Jones continued growth in anticipation of the impending US interest rate decision.

Insurance in London was today booming as a series of good half-sales figures were unveiled, whilst airlines across Europe benefited from the tumbling oil prices after the major investment sell-off over the last few days.

Banks were also amongst some of the strongest traded securities, particularly in Frankfurt where Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, the first and second largest in Germany impressed after easing sub-prime concerns in the US economy.

Analysts predict that the growth in Europe is to continue over the course of the week, as further company results are anticipated, and with an impending US interest rate decision.

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Trading today across major European stock markets remained mixed, after ongoing fears as to the health of the economy in the US.

Markets across Europe produced a mixed bag of results at the closing bell today, as investors are still struggling with US economic issues when making their investment decisions.

In London, the FTSE 100 index of leading shares had shown a slight increase on the day by the halfway stage.

The German DAX, an index comprising the top 30 companies within Germany, reported over a tenth of one percent growth over the day, whilst the CAC in Paris felt a decline of around half a percent on trading of its top 40 company securities.

The DJ Euro Stoxx, which operates a Eurozone index of 50 company securities overall reported a loss on the index over today’s trade, closing down almost two fifths of a percent at the closing bell.

Meanwhile, the Euro remained strong against the dollar, as it continues to weaken against world economies, leading to beneficial imports throughout the eurozone from the US.

However, the strength of the Euro in comparison to the dollar is still hurting reverse trade, with exports to the US from within the Eurozone becoming increasingly less competitive.

Many analysts have criticized economic management within the US over the last few years, citing the widespread effect of the world’s largest economy’s under performance on world business as a major factor for global economic frailty.

With ongoing problems in the US housing market and sub-prime lending market looking set to continue, there appears to be no immediate route out of the situation for the US economy.

Experts have predicted that markets across Europe will continue to see rocky trading throughout the rest of this week, unless any new information or economic indicators from within the US economy point favourably to a quick turnaround.

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