Europe midday: Stocks push higher as investors eye ECB minutes, US data

European stocks shook off a tentative start to trade higher on Thursday amid well-received corporate news, as investors looked ahead to the latest minutes from the European Central Bank and a slew of US data.

At midday, the benchmark Stoxx 600 index and France’s CAC 40 were up 1%, while Germany’s DAX was 1.7% higher.

Markus Huber, senior analyst at Peregrine & Black, said while sentiment has turned positive from neutral over the last couple of days, much of the rebound so far has been caused by bargain hunting rather than any actual fundamental change as far as the outlook for global growth and corporate profits is concerned.

“Although being overbought in the short-term, momentum still seems to be strong with traders preferring to buy dips for now,” he said.

Oil prices were in the black, staying positive following a surge in the previous session after Iran unexpectedly backed Saudi Arabia and Russia’s plan to freeze production at January levels. Still, Iran did not offer to take any action itself.

West Texas Intermediate was up 3.3% at $31.66 a barrel and Brent crude was 2.6% firmer at $35.38.

On the corporate front, British Gas owner Centrica rallied after its full year earnings beat analysts’ expectations.

BAE Systems was also on the front foot its 2015 results met expectations and the aerospace and defence group issued guidance that underlying earnings per share will rise 5% to 10% in 2016.

Air France-KLM flew higher after saying it swung to a profit in 2015, while hotels group Accor gained after posting a profit increase of nearly 11% for 2015.

On the downside, Nestle slumped after reporting a 37% decline in net profit for 2015.

Figures released by the European Central Bank earlier showed the current account surplus in the Eurozone narrowed in December.

The current account balance revealed a surplus of €25.5bn in adjusted terms compared with a revised €26.9bn the previous month.

Surpluses for goods, services and primary income were partially offset by a deficit in secondary income.

Pantheon Macroeconomics said: “The marginal decline was mainly due to a fall in the trade surplus. The goods and services surplus fell €1.0bn and €1.4bn respectively, partially offset by a €1.0bn increase in the primary income.”

Still to come on the data front, US initial jobless claims and the Philadelphia Fed survey are at 1330 GMT, while leading indicators are at 1500 GMT.

Investors will also be awaiting the release of the European Central Bank’s January minutes.

“Today’s minutes will potentially show more nuance on how well anchored the promises of more actions were (Draghi said that the Governing Council had been unanimous on communication),” said Societe Generale.

“Moreover, we are looking for further details on the reasoning around the downside risks to core inflation (there is some room to lower the core inflation forecast in our view).”