ROME: Europe’s main stock benchmark closed essentially unchanged Wednesday, as many investors avoided big bets before Thursday’s European Central Bank meeting, though a tide of earnings releases lifted and sank some stocks.
The Stoxx Europe 600 SXXP, -0.01% ended down less than 0.1% at 362.64 after darting in and out of positive territory throughout the session. On Tuesday, the pan-European benchmark pulled back from a two-month high, weighed by losses for commodity producers.
Markets are building “towards what could be another key ECB meeting on Thursday,” said Richard Perry, analyst at Hantec Markets, in a note.
“There is a split of opinion over whether the ECB will be ready to announce further easing measures…an issue further muddied by news that there has been slight improvement in bank lending in the eurozone recently,” Perry wrote.
