The New Oxford Circus crossing in London.
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LONDON — European stocks closed higher Wednesday as investors in the region assessed key inflation prints from the U.S. and U.K.
The regional Stoxx 600 index ended the session up 0.43%, continuing cautiously positive sentiment this week. Travel and leisure stocks gained 2.89%, while mining stocks fell 0.97%.
Swiss bank UBS added 5.29% after significantly beating net profit forecasts for the second quarter.
U.K. inflation rose to 2.2% in July, coming in slightly below expectations but inching back above the Bank of England’s 2% target, data from the Office for National Statistics showed.
Economists polled by Reuters had been expecting the headline consumer price index to come in at 2.3%.
It is the first print since the Bank of England cut interest rates by 25 basis points last month. Services inflation, a key metric for the central bank, dropping to 5.2% from 5.7%.
Stateside, inflation also came in slightly cooler than expected. The U.S. consumer price index for July recorded an increase of 0.2% for the month, and 2.9% year-on-year.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones forecast readings of 0.2% and 3%, respectively.
It comes after the U.S. producer price index, released on Tuesday, showed wholesale prices had increased 0.1% last month. Economists expected the reading to show a monthly gain of 0.2% in July, according to Dow Jones consensus estimates.
Investors are now assessing whether the prints point to an interest rate cut of 25 or 50 basis points by the Federal Reserve in September. Market pricing suggests a 58.5% probability of the former and a 41.5% probability of the latter, according to CME’s FedWatch tool.
U.S. stocks were mixed following Wednesday’s inflation release, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average pushing higher.
Asia-Pacific markets were mixed overnight as the Reserve Bank of New Zealand cut benchmark lending rates and Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced that he would step down in September.
