In European Equity Markets closed in positive territory on Wednesday, recouping earlier losses as Wall Street opened higher and upbeat earnings published by Lloyds and Glencore gave a boost to financial stocks and miners.  Europe’s pan-European STOXX 600 index closed up 0.16 percent at 381.1 points but some bourses on the continent ended the day slightly in the red, like Germany’s DAX, down 0.14 percent. Britain’s FTSE outperformed its European peers with a 0.48 percent rise, with heavyweight Glencore up 5.2 percent following a set of full-year results described as the miner’s “strongest on record”. European banks, up 0.5 percent, also benefited from the earnings update from Lloyds, which reported its highest pre-tax profit since 2006 and announced a share buy-back of up to one billion pounds.

In Currency Markets the US dollar rose on Wednesday, extending its recovery from a three-year low last week, helped by buoyant short-term Treasury yields, and as traders awaited the release of minutes of the Federal Reserve’s recent policy meeting that could offer clues on the pace of future interest rate hikes. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was up 0.14 percent at 89.838, after hitting a one-week high of 89.998 earlier in the session. The euro edged lower after the release of February’s preliminary purchasing managers’ survey implied the pace of growth set in January, the fastest in well over a decade, has lost a little momentum in February. The Canadian dollar weakened to a nearly two-week low against its U.S. counterpart as oil prices fell.

In Commodities Markets oil prices eased on Wednesday, under pressure from a recovery in the value of the dollar from last week’s three-year lows and from an expected rise in U.S. crude production. Brent crude futures were last down 13 cents at $65.12 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 28 cents to $61.51 a barrel. The premium of Brent over WTI widened to almost $3.60 a barrel, having neared its narrowest in six months on Tuesday as concern about a bottleneck of Canadian crude imports underpinned U.S. futures. U.S. inventory data, due tomorrow, is expected to show a rise of 1.3 million barrels in crude stocks in the week to Feb. 16, according to a Reuters poll. Gold was flat on Wednesday as investors awaited Federal Reserve policy meeting minutes for clues on the outlook for U.S. interest rates.

In US Equity Markets stocks rose on Wednesday, with technology shares and Amazon driving gains ahead of minutes of the Federal Reserve’s most recent policy meeting. Broadcom Corp lowered its takeover offer for chipmaker Qualcomm to account for the latter’s increased offer for NXP Semiconductors NV. Qualcomm shares fell 1.2 percent. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.85 percent to 7,295.86 and the S&P 500 was up 0.65 percent at 2,733.83. Eight of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher, led by a 1.18 percent gain in the industrial index. Boeing gained 1.4 percent after Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg said the plane maker will generate about 15 percent of its earnings per share and about 10 percent of its cash for the full year during the first quarter of 2018.

In Bond Markets German bond yields hit two-week lows on Wednesday as weaker-than-expected business activity data from the euro area eased concern that ultra-easy monetary policy in the bloc could end sooner rather than later. Long-term borrowing costs across the single-currency bloc were down across the board after preliminary purchasing managers index numbers from France and Germany, and closed the day about 1 to 3 basis points lower. German 10-year Bund yields fell 4 bps at one stage to a two-week low at 0.697 percent, before settling at 0.72 percent. U.S. Treasury yields steadied, after rising on Tuesday as markets absorbed the first chunk of this week’s supply deluge.