CAC 40 Inches Higher On Improved China Data
(RTTNews) - French stocks were slightly higher on Wednesday after two manufacturing surveys out of China painted a positive picture of the world's second-largest economy.
While the official manufacturing PMI swung to expansion from a 34-month low in the previous month, the Caixin survey showed that factory activity shrank more slowly than in the previous month.
Investors awaited the U.S FOMC meeting outcome later in the day for further direction.
The Federal Reserve is likely to raise interest rates by another 25 basis points and signal that a pause in rate hikes is on the horizon.
Overnight data showing a slower-than-expected increase in U.S. labor costs helped spur expectations that inflation will ease further in the coming months and eventually pave the way for the Fed to cut rates by year-end.
The European Central Bank (ECB) and Bank of England (BoE) will review their monetary policies on Thursday, and both are expected raise their key policy rates by 50 bps.
The benchmark CAC 40 was up 13 points, or 0.2 percent, at 7,096 after closing marginally higher on Tuesday.
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