Europe Stocks Higher But Tensions Dominate

European stock markets are rising on Thursday, supported by increased confidence and strong earnings from Unilever, but were quickly bogged down by more headlines about the tension between the United States and China.

The German DAX rose 0.5%, French CAC rose 0.3% while FTSE scored 0.4%.

Consumer sentiment in Germany improved more than expected for August, supported by temporary tax cuts and that is an indication that Europe’s largest economy is slowly recovering from the pandemic. The Consumer Climate Index gfk rose to -0.3 in August from -6.9 in July . it hit a low of 23.1 in May.

In addition, French business confidence posted further progress in July as the official statistics agency INSEE reported that the business climate index rose to 85 from 78 in June but was still far from 105 recorded in the pre-pandemic period in February but in any case better than the level Low at 53 in April.