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The pan-European Stoxx 600 index rose 0.6%, almost all sectors being in the dark. Core resources led the gains, rising more than 2% as investors waited for the G-20 summit scheduled for Friday. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are scheduled to meet to try to improve their trade relations.
But the main engine of the stock market Thursday was a much anticipated speech by the chairman of the Federal Reserve. Jerome Powell said Wednesday in New York that he felt that the benchmark interest rate of the Fed was close to the neutral level; which marks a milestone in the comments made in recent months.
In October, Powell had said that the United States was still "far away" from interest-rate neutral interest rates – which indicated to markets at the time that Other rate hikes were on the horizon. Following Powell's comments on Wednesday, Wall Street saw equities skyrocket, with the Dow recording its largest gain in eight months, closing at over 600 points and also supporting Asian trading. The expectation that the Fed should raise rates to a lower than expected level was positive for equities.
Standing on news from the central bank, the Bank of England said that a "messy" departure from the European Union would put the British economy under extreme pressure and could be more painful for the UK that has not been the global financial crisis.
In the individual stock information, Britvic's shares rose more than 6% after reporting that its sugar-free beverages boosted sales.
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