European shares advanced on Monday, October 26, as falling oil prices and encouraging corporate updates supported a recovery following last week’s losses.
The pan-European STOXX 600 rose 0.4% to 638.45 points by 10:50 GMT. Germany’s DAX gained 0.9%, helped by stronger-than-expected business confidence data.
Lower crude prices lifted travel and leisure stocks by 1.6%, while energy shares fell 1.5%. Among individual companies, Danish biotechnology firm Genmab surged 13.7% following promising cancer-treatment trial data, and Britain’s Computacenter climbed 9.5% after raising its annual profit forecast.
Attention now turns to the Federal Reserve’s decision on Wednesday and the European Central Bank’s announcement on Thursday. Both are widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged, although investors will scrutinise their guidance for indications of possible increases in December.
The week also brings major corporate earnings and economic releases. Results from technology companies including Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon will provide a further test of investor confidence, particularly over whether heavy spending on artificial intelligence is translating into sustainable returns.
