Market Drivers – European Session 17/8/2022

European shares rose for the sixth consecutive session on Wednesday, boosted by a rally in financial stocks as investors focused on economic growth and inflation data in the eurozone due for release this week.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index rose 0.2 percent in early trading, hovering near its highest level in ten weeks. All regional markets posted gains.

In Britain, the FTSE index rose 0.1. Official figures showed that British consumer price inflation rose to 10.1 percent in July, the highest level since February 1982. It entered the double digits after reaching 9.4 percent in June.

The dollar remained higher against other major currencies on Wednesday before the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s meeting for the month of July, which may give more indications on the pace of raising interest rates again.

The dollar has recouped its losses since lower-than-expected inflation data last week led investors to bet that price hikes may have peaked, sending the dollar lower.

The dollar index settled during trading on Wednesday at 106.510 points. It rose about two percent after falling last week following inflation data, but it is still two percent above a two-decade high of 109.29 hit in mid-July.

Retail Sales in the US stayed virtually unchanged at $682.8 billion in July, the data published by the US Census Bureau showed on Wednesday. This reading followed June’s increase of 0.8% and came in slightly weaker than the market expectation of +0.1%.