Europe midday: Stocks veer firmly into the black

Stocks in Europe had turned around to trade comfortably higher come midday, even as investors continued to monitor the headlines around the decision of US president Joe Biden not to run for re-election and its potential implications.

They were also waiting on the quarterly results due out after the New York close from US heavyweights Alphabet and Tesla.

Against that backdrop, Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB said: "When the market lacks conviction about certain events: outcomes of political elections and the future direction of monetary policy, it tends to go back to the ‘comfort blanket’ trade."

As of 1208 BST, the Stoxx 600 was rising by 0.62% to 518, while the Cac-40 had moved into the black by 0.52% to 7,661.77.

Germany's Dax meanwhile was up by 1.26% to 18,639.30.

The euro and crude oil futures were little changed whilst 10-year French government bond prices were edging up.

According to analysts at Oxford Economics, among the things that investors were now watching on the US election front was how polls reacted to the announcement of Kamala Harris's presidential bid and who she chose as her running mate.

Shares of Porsche were down 3% after the iconic sportscar maker cut its guidance for the year on account of a lack of aluminium parts that might force it cut production.

The shortage was blamed on the impact of flooding at a key supplier.

Software maker SAP on the other hand reported a 10% jump in sales for the second quarter, whilst non-IFRS operating profits surged 33%.

Those results sent its shares 7% higher in Frankfurt trading.

On the economic calendar for Tuesday, at 1400 BST the European Commission would publish the preliminary results of its consumer confidence survey for the month of July.

In parallel, the National Association of Realtors was to release existing home sales figures for June.