European Shares Flat To Higher Ahead Of Fed Decision

(RTTNews) - European stocks were flat to slightly higher on Wednesday ahead of upcoming Federal Reserve and Bank of England meetings.

Markets have priced in a 25-basis point rate cut from the Federal Reserve later in the day.

Investors will closely scrutinize the Fed's updated economic projections and dot plot for insights into the pace and extent of potential rate cuts throughout 2025.

The British pound held steady despite new data showing that U.K. inflation rose to an eight-month high in November.

The consumer price index posted an annual growth of 2.6 percent in November, up from 2.3 percent in October.

Core inflation, excluding prices of energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, advanced to 3.5 percent from 3.3 percent.

The data supported expectations that the Bank of England will hold interest rates at its final meeting of the year on Thursday.

The pan European STOXX 600 was marginally higher at 514.06 after falling 0.4 percent on Tuesday amid political upheavals in Germany and France.

The German DAX was flat, France's CAC 40 edged up 0.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 gained 0.4 percent.

ASSA ABLOY, a provider of access solutions, rose about 1 percent after it has acquired Norshield Security Products in the U.S.

Kingfisher, a British home improvement company, rose about 1 percent after selling its Brico Depot Romania business to Altex Romania for €70m.

Character Group, a toys, games, and giftware company, rallied 3 percent after posting year-end results in line with expectations.

Hardide, a provider of tungsten carbide coatings to engineering components, jumped 29 percent after it secured a 10-year deal for coating aerospace cargo door components.

French automaker Renault, which owns around 23 percent of Japan's Nissan, surged more than 5 percent after reports emerged that Honda and Nissan have initiated talks on a possible merger.

Kontron AG shares soared 10 percent. The German provider of technology products and services said that it has received an order of around 165 million euros from a European defense company.