Stock markets push higher despite N.Korea jitters

Stock markets in Europe and the United States mostly recovered Wednesday, although the North Korean crisis remained on the minds of investors.

Gold hit near one-year highs as investors continued to flock to haven assets ahead of the European Central Bank’s policy meeting Thursday.

There was little movement between the dollar, euro and pound Wednesday, analyst Connor Campbell at Spreadex noted.

“That’ll be in part due to the fact that the week’s main forex-event – tomorrow’s ECB meeting – is yet to come, investors having little reason to change their positions until after [ECB chief Mario] Draghi’s latest comments,” he said.

John Cryan, head of Germany’s biggest lender Deutsche Bank, urged the ECB to end its easy-money policy to avoid inflating market bubbles and relieve eurozone lenders.

For now, though, the focus remained firmly on North Korea.

“Global stock markets appear to be in a period of nervous uncertainty, as the threat of another North Korean test looms large over any investors wishing to invest in risky assets,” said Joshua Mahony, market analyst at IG trading group.

After a soft start due to a poor handover from Asia, European stocks perked up in afternoon trading.

“Stocks in Europe are a mixed bag this afternoon as the stalemate regarding North Korea is still ongoing,” market analyst David Madden at CMC Markets U.K. said. Frankfurt finished the day up 0.8 percent, driven higher by carmakers.

Shares in Daimler shot 3.2 percent higher after analysts Goldman Sachs switched their advice to buy, saying the stock in the Mercedes-maker were 25 percent undervalued.

Moreover, it said changes in legal structure announced by the luxury carmaker last month could lead to a listing of the truck and bus division, which it estimated to be worth 31 billion euros, thus opening up the possibility Daimler could unlock considerable value to shareholders.

Shares in BMW and Volkswagen both added 1.6 percent.

Paris closed 0.3 percent higher, but London slid 0.3 percent.

Wall Street was also mixed approaching midday, with the Dow adding 0.3 percent.

“U.S. stocks are regaining some of yesterday’s drop in early action, though global sentiment remains jittery in the face of exacerbated North Korea tensions, along with monetary and political uncertainties,” analysts at Charles Schwab brokerage said.

The dollar, already down against the safe-bet yen on geopolitical concerns, took a hit from comments by Federal Reserve officials playing down the chances of a third rate hike of the year and worries about a looming hurricane in the Atlantic.

Fed Governor Lael Brainard said the central bank had continued to miss its 2 percent inflation target for the past year and added: “My view is that we should be cautious about tightening policy further until we are confident inflation is on track to achieve our target.”

Oil prices extended gains after surging Tuesday when WTI jumped around 3 percent and Brent put on 2 percent on reports that Russia and Saudi Arabia were considering extending a production cut.

Also refineries that were forced to shut owing to Hurricane Harvey began to come back online in the U.S. Gulf Coast, helping clear a backlog of the commodity.

Eyes are now on the release of U.S. crude inventory data from industry group the American Petroleum Institute due Wednesday, which precedes U.S. government figures a day later.