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Investing.com – European stock markets traded higher Tuesday, helped by strong numbers from Swiss banking giant UBS.
At 4:10 AM ET (0810 GMT), the DAX in Germany traded 1% higher, the CAC 40 in France rose 0.7% and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 climbed 0.6%, climbing to a new 52-week high.
UBS (SIX:UBSG) stock rose 1.9% after the Swiss bank reported net profit of $2.3 billion in the third quarter, its highest quarterly profit in six years, and a 9% increase from the same period a year before as its wealth management division continued to boom.
These strong results followed on from Monday’s healthy numbers by U.K.-based rival HSBC (LON:HSBA), but neither can be seen as particularly good proxies for the European sector as a whole given their focus on Asia.
Earlier Tuesday, Asia markets pushed higher, helped by HSBC upgrading its call on Chinese stocks to overweight, saying investors had become too bearish on the market, while Wall Street closed Monday at new record levels.
Back in Europe, Reckitt Benckiser (LON:RKT) stock rose 5.5%, the maker of Lysol cleaning products raising its full-year forecast after reporting higher-than-expected third-quarter sales.
Thales (PA:TCFP) stock rose 0.2% after the French defence group reaffirmed its full-year financial forecasts even with a 1.4% dip in underlying third-quarter sales, while Swiss drugmaker Novartis (SIX:NOVN) stock climbed 1% as its third-quarter adjusted operating profit rose 10%.
On the flip side, Faurecia (PA:EPED) stock fell 3.1% after the French car parts maker reported a drop in third-quarter sales of over 10% from a year ago, as its customers cut production due to a global shortage in semiconductor chips.
There is little economic data to study in Europe Tuesday, but investors will be keeping an eye on a meeting of European Union ministers to discuss the recent spike in energy prices.
Crude prices stabilized Tuesday after the recent strong rally and ahead of the release of the latest U.S. stockpiles from the American Petroleum Institute, a guide to demand in the world’s biggest consumer of oil.
Oil prices have more than doubled over the last year, helped by strong demand in the United States, as the world’s largest economy recovers from the damage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Crude oil stockpiles are expected to have risen by 1.7 million barrels last week, according to a Reuters poll, but gasoline and distillate inventories are expected to fall.
By 4:10 AM ET, U.S. crude futures traded 0.3% lower at $83.50 a barrel, while the Brent contract traded 0.1% lower at $85.08.
Additionally, gold futures traded 0.2% lower at $1,802.85/oz, while EUR/USD traded largely flat at 1.1607.
