Forex News

The Swiss stock market shook off early weakness and inched higher on Wednesday, closing in the green for the fourth straight session and advancing more than 100 points or 1 percent in that span.

The major European stock markets opened in the red on Wednesday and remained under water throughout most of the session, finally finishing mixed and little changed. The early selling pressure came on lingering concerns about the Federal Reserve's rate hike path, which dented demand for riskier assets. The Federal Reserve is scheduled to release the minutes of its latest monetary policy meeting later today, which could shed additional light on the outlook for interest rates amid worries the Fed will raise rates higher than currently anticipated. Germany's DAX rose 2.27 points or 0.01 percent to finish at 15,399.89, while the FTSE in London sank 47.12 points or 0.59 percent to close at 7,930.63 and the CAC 40 in France eased 9.39 points or 0.13 percent to end at 7,299.26. In Germany, Fresenius Medical Care skyrocketed 7.32 percent, while Fresenius SE plummeted 4.37 percent, Deutsche Borse tumbled 2.78 percent, Deutsche Bank retreated 1.52 percent, Deutsche Telekom advanced 0.93 percent, Infineon Technology dropped 0.79 percent, Deutsche Post added 0.57 percent, Heidelberg Cement rose 0.47 percent and Volkswagen perked 0.09 percent. In London, Antofagasta plummeted 2.79 percent, while Rolls-Royce tumbled 2.15 percent, Rentokil Initial jumped 1.89 percent, Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust declined 1.83 percent, Compass Group climbed 1.48 percent, Shell slumped 1.45 percent, Vodafone skidded 1.14 percent, Prudential sank 1.03 percent, Haleon lost 0.79 percent, Centrica fell 0.63 percent, British American Tobacco rose 0.46 percent and Tesco dipped 0.24 percent. In France, Danone surged 4.49 percent, while BNP Paribas tanked 2.20 percent, Credit Agricole surrendered 2.01 percent, Societe Generale retreated 1,94 percent, Carrefour slumped 1.21 percent, Engie weakened 1.14 percent, Orange advanced 0.87 percent, Sanofi added 0.78 percent, Veolia Environment lost 0.56 percent, Vivendi fell 0.49 percent and L'Oreal rose 0.10 percent. In economic news, Germany's consumer price inflation accelerated as initially estimated at the start of the year amid higher energy and food prices, official data showed Wednesday. The consumer price index climbed 8.7 percent year-over-year in January, faster than the downwardly revised 8.1 percent rise in December, final data from Destatis revealed. Italy's consumer price inflation eased more than expected in January, on lower energy and fresh food prices, but core price growth accelerated due to increase in prices across a broad range of goods and services, latest figures from the statistical office ISTAT showed Wednesday. The consumer price index rose 10.0 percent year-on-year following an 11.6 percent increase in December. Confidence among French manufacturers improved marginally for the third straight month in February, primarily due to an improvement in the assessment of the past production and the overall order book balance, survey results from the statistical office Insee showed on Wednesday. The manufacturing confidence index rose to 104 in February from 103 in the previous month.

While the Federal Reserve's decision to further slow the pace of interest rate hikes at the latest monetary policy meeting was unanimous, the minutes of the meeting revealed some participants favored a larger rate increase.

Germany's ifo business confidence indicator climbed for the fourth month in a row in February, underpinned by stronger expectations, suggesting the resilience of the biggest euro area economy that may indeed avoid a modest recession. The ifo business confidence index rose to an eight-month high of 91.1 from 90.1 in January, survey data from the Munich-based ifo institute showed Wednesday.

Confidence among French manufacturers improved marginally for the third straight month in February, primarily due to an improvement in the assessment of the past production and the overall order book balance, survey results from the statistical office Insee showed on Wednesday. The manufacturing confidence index rose to 104 in February from 103 in the previous month.

Gibraltar Industries, Inc. (ROCK) reported Wednesday that net income for the fourth quarter declined to $3.3 million or $0.11 per share from $9.8 million or $0.30 per share in the prior-year quarter.