The pan-European Stoxx 600 ended the session little changed, with banks adding 1.5% — led by a surge of Deutsche Bank’s share price — while industrials fell 0.7%.
European investors are digesting a slew of earnings reports from Deutsche Bank, Sanofi, Dassault Systemes, Banco Santander, French Connection, GlaxoSmithKline and Lloyds Banking Group, among others.
Deutsche Bank reported a 908 million euro ($1.1 billion) profit for the first quarter, its strongest quarterly profit for seven years, buoyed by continued strong performance in its investment banking division.
The German lender’s shares surged 10.7% to lead the Stoxx 600 by the market closed Wednesday, while Lloyds added 3.5% after also beating earnings expectations.
Delivery Hero’s strong 2021 outlook sent the German food delivery company’s stock 9.4% higher.
At the bottom of the index, Swedish cloud software company Sinch fell 10.8% after its interim first-quarter report.
Also in focus will be the latest decision from the U.S. Federal Reserve, which is due to be announced later in the day. On Wall Street, stocks traded in the red Wednesday as investors digested major technology earnings and geared up for the latest Federal Reserve policy announcement.
The Fed wraps up its two-day policy meeting on Wednesday. The central bank is not expected to take any action, but economists expect it to defend its policy to let inflation run hot. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will hold a press conference at 2:30 p.m. ET, 30 minutes after the decision is announced.
Investors will also be watching technology darlings Apple and Facebook, which will report earnings on Wednesday after the bell.
