Europe midday: Stocks track gains on Wall Street, drug and biotech shares higher – ShareCast

Stocks in the rest of Europe were putting in a small bounce on Tuesday, with investors taking their cue from US markets, which had finished higher the day before on the hope that the worst scenarios in the Middle East could yet be averted.

That was despite the head of Iran's national security council, Ali Shamkhani's, reported threat of a "historic nightmare" for the US.

"Even though tensions between the US and Iran remain high, sentiment in equity markets has turned positive, as European indices are showing modest gains this morning. The fact US markets ended yesterdays session higher paved the way for buying in Asia overnight as well as in Europe this morning," said David Madden, market analyst at CMC Markets UK.

"The gains might be limited seeing as the political situation is far resolved but it would appear that some of the fear has evaporated for now."

As of 1225 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was rallying 0.40% to 418.25, alongside a 0.87% jump to 13,241.60 for Germany's Dax, alongside a gain of 0.19% to 9,618.5 for the Spanish Ibex 35.

February gold futures on COMEX meanwhile were essentially flat, adding 0.01% to $1,569.0/oz., while the yield on the benchmark 10-year bund - another of investors' favourite safe havens - was steady at -0.29%.

As an aside, analysts at UBS bumped up their year-end target for the US S&P 500 from 3,000 to 3,250, telling clients that the Fed interest rate cuts in 2019 had sown the seeds for the next economic recovery, with GDP likely to trough later in 2020.

Pandora was again in the lead on the Stoxx 600, having guided towards the higher end of its previous guidance for its full-year EBIT margins the day before. In an unexpected trading update, released during the previous session, the jewellery-maker also posted a fourth quarter drop in like-for-like sales of 4.0% (JP Morgan: -7.0%), which followed a 11.0% fall in the third quarter.

Ipsen was right behind on the leaderboard after the UK's drug regulator approved the company's Dysport drug for the symptomatic treatment of upper limb spasticity in children suffering from cerebral palsy.

In parallel, Germany's Evotec SE got a boost from news that Bristol Myers Squibb had paid it $6.0m as part of yet another expansion of its collaboration on Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells.

Stock in Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA was also moving higher after reporting a 21% jump in revenues for December, which marked a ninth straight monthly increase.

On the economic side of things, traders' attention was on a parliamentary vote in Madrid, which was expected to see the incumbent Socialist Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, clinch the backing that he needed to form a minority coalition government, albeit with just a razor thin simple majority of MPs votes.

Elsewhere, Eurostat confirmed that the year-on-year rate of increase in Eurozone consumer prices picked up from a 1.0% pace in November to 1.3% in December.

Later in the session, investors will shift their attention to the release of the Institute for Supply Management's factory sector Purchasing Managers' Index covering the month of December, at 1600 GMT.

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Europe midday: Stocks track gains on Wall Street, drug and biotech shares higher - ShareCast