European stocks are jumping after Janet Yellen struck a dovish tone
European stocks are soaring on Wednesday after US Federal Reserve chairman Janet Yellen struck a cautious tone and dampened expectations of a rate hike in the USA in the near future. The rally extends gains seen on Tuesday, the week's first day of trading after the Easter break.
Markets across the continent opened sharply higher on Wednesday morning and have continued to rise since then. Just after 11:15 a.m. BST (6:15 a.m. ET) all but one of Europe's biggest share indexes are more than 1.5% up, with the CAC 40 in France leading the way, up by 1.84% to 4,447 points. On top of the charts in France are construction firm Technip, building material manufacturer Lafargeholcim, and supermarket Carrefour, all up more than 4%.
Here's how the CAC looks:
And here's the European scoreboard:
- Germany's DAX - up 1.7%
- Britain's FTSE 100 - up 1.74%
- Spain's IBEX 35 - up 1.55%
- Italy's FTSE MIB - up 1.32%
- The Netherlands' AEX - up 1.77%
- Belgium's BEL 20 - up 1.28%
- Euro Stoxx 50 broad index - up 1.68%
On a sector-by-sector basis, miners are having the best day, thanks largely to the weakness in the dollar caused by Yellen's comments. In the mining and commodity heavy FTSE 100, miners dominate the upper echelons. Anglo American, which has seen shares more than double since hitting an all-time low in January, is up by 9.7% on the day, while Glencore and BHP Billiton have both gained more than 6%.
Elsewhere in the markets, gold and other precious metals are up on the day, while oil has also rallied on Wednesday morning.