Europe close: Markets close higher ahead of Fed minutes

European stocks ended the day in the black on Wednesday, having traded choppily throughout the day, as investors rode higher oil prices and encouraging data releases from China and Germany ahead of the Federal Reserve meeting minutes due in the evening.

At close, the benchmark Stoxx 600 index was up 0.74%, Germany’s DAX was up 0.64% and France’s CAC 40 was 0.81% higher.

Oil prices were also higher after the Kuwaiti governor for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Nawal Al-Fuzaia, said she was confident both OPEC and non-OPEC members will go along with plans to cut crude output at the upcoming meeting in Qatar.

West Texas Intermediate was last up 4.45% to $37.56 a barrel and Brent crude was 3.96% higher at $39.43.

Sentiment was given a lift earlier in the day by news that China’s service sector strengthened in March. The Caixin services purchasing managers’ index rose to 52.2 in March from 51.2 the previous month, beating expectations for a reading of 51.4.

German data was also cheerier than expected, with figures from Destatis showing industrial production fell 0.5% in February following a revised 2.3% growth the month before, which was much better than the 1.8% drop economists had been expecting.

On the year, production rose 1.3%, which was down from a revised 1.8% in January but better than the 0.4% expected.

European indices seemed to recover from shakiness seen earlier in afternoon trading, with investors shifting their attention to the latest minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee meeting, due after the close at 1900 BST.

In a speech last week, chair Janet Yellen struck a dovish note, saying rate rises will be gradual and quashing market speculation of an April hike.

After Yellen’s speech, however, comments from Fed officials James Bullard, Dennis Lockhart and John Williams were a lot more hawkish in tone.

“The FOMC minutes are often stale given the two-week lag but speculation of a rift between policymakers has increased the importance of the release in April,” said CMC Markets market analyst Jasper Lawler.

“Strength in the euro, mostly because of dollar weakness has been a thorn in the side of European markets so a lot hangs on how the Fed communicates.”

On the corporate front, Glencore was lower after saying it has agreed to sell 40% of its agriculture commodities business to the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for $2.5bn (£1.8bn) in cash.

Pharmaceuticals companies Shire, AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline rallied in London as investors bet that the termination of Pfizer’s agreement to buy Allergan might make them bid targets.

Shares in H&M rose despite the Swedish retailer posting a 30% decline in first quarter net profit.

It was a bad day for airlines, however. Easyjet flew lower after the budget carrier reported a rise in passenger numbers in March but a drop in the load factor.

Air France-KLM slumped after it announced the departure of its chief executive Alexandre de Juniac.