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European stocks posted small gains on Tuesday as traders hoped central banks would not push global economies into recession by raising interest rates too much in their fight against inflation.
Europe’s Stoxx 600 region added 0.2 percent, while France’s Cac 40 and Germany’s Dax rose 0.1 percent. Trading volumes were expected to remain light while US markets were closed for the Independence Day holiday.
The moves mirrored the trend in Asia, where stocks rose after Australia’s central bank decided to hold interest rates at 4.1 percent and monitor the impact of a previous rate hike on the economy.
Policymakers were guided by a faster-than-expected decline in the country’s annual inflation rate, which fell to a 13-month low of 5.6 percent in May from 6.8 percent a month earlier. The move cheered investors who were worried that central banks would tighten their monetary policy in an effort to quell lingering price pressures.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.5 percent after the announcement, while China’s CSI 300 added 0.2 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.6 percent. Japan’s Topix was the furthest region down, down 0.6 percent.
Oil prices rose on Tuesday after two of the world’s biggest producers, Saudi Arabia and Russia, said they would cut supplies in August.
Brent crude, the international benchmark, added 0.8 percent to trade at $75.27 a barrel, while U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate rose 0.9 percent to $70.42.
Germany’s Dax saw the biggest losses in the energy and basic materials sector, while the Stoxx 600 Basic Resources index fell 0.5 percent.
Meanwhile, new data on Tuesday showed German exports fell 0.1 percent in the month to May as high interest rates continued to weigh on the country’s key trading partners. The value fell well below analysts’ expectations of 0.3 percent growth.
“Trade is no longer the strong, resilient growth engine of the German economy that it used to be, but rather a drag,” said Carsten Brzeski, global head of macroeconomics at ING. “The expected slowdown of the US economy. . . high inflation and high uncertainty will clearly have an impact on German exports.
A separate survey by the economic research institute Ifo showed that the business climate in Germany has worsened significantly in the chemical industry, with the indicator for the sector falling to minus 28.3 points in June from minus 12.5 in May.
Investors are set to take their next trading cues from new economic data this week, with Friday’s widely anticipated US jobs report expected to offer a glimpse of the Federal Reserve’s next policy move.