European Stocks Calm; Payrolls and ECB Stimulus in Focus By Investing.com – Investing.com

European Stocks Calm; Payrolls and ECB Stimulus in Focus By Investing.com – Investing.com

© Reuters

By Peter Nurse

Investing.com -- European stock markets traded largely unchanged Thursday, with investors displaying caution ahead of Friday’s key U.S. payrolls release while European Central Bank members discussed withdrawing monetary stimulus. At 3:40 AM ET (0840 GMT), the in Germany traded 0.1% higher, the in France rose 0.1%, while the U.K.’s dropped 0.1%, with mining heavyweight BHP (LON:) weighing as it went ex-dividend.

The rebound in the Eurozone economy, coupled with a sharp rise in inflation, has brought the subject of the ECB’s extraordinary monetary support back into debate, to the possible detriment of the region’s stock markets.

Earlier this week, in the euro region jumped to 3%, well above the ECB’s goal, and this prompted Jens Weidmann, the head of the Bundesbank, to talk on Wednesday about scaling back this stimulus.

While Weidmann and fellow hawks Robert Holzmann and Klaas Knot are typically in a minority on the ECB's governing council, the accounts of the ECB's last meeting included the clearest acknowledgement of excessive inflation risks since the start of the pandemic 19 months ago.

The region’s July number, due for release at 5 AM ET (0900 GMT), will be