European stocks opened higher on Thursday, dodging concerns over sharp declines in bitcoin and the U.S. Federal Reserve’s hints that it could taper its asset purchase programs sooner rather than later.
TICKER COMPANY NAME PRICE CHANGE %CHANGE VOLUME
.FTSE FTSE 100 FTSE 6982.23 32.03 0.46 33672820
.GDAXI DAX DAX 15216.63 103.07 0.68 3171255
.FCHI CAC 40 Index CAC 6300.58 38.03 0.61 2392113
The pan-European Stoxx 600 climbed 0.6% in early trade, with travel and leisure stocks adding 1.2% to lead gains as all sectors and major bourses entered positive territory.
The positive open in Europe bucks the trend seen in the U.S. this week; U.S. stock futures fell slightly in early premarket trade on Thursday, after major averages registered a third straight day of losses amid a drop in cryptocurrencies.
The moves in futures followed a roller-coaster session on Wall Street, triggered by a sudden drop in bitcoin price, which led to a sharp sell-off in many speculative areas of the market.
Cryptocurrency-linked shares, including Tesla, Coinbase and MicroStrategy, led the market decline as bitcoin tanked as much as 30% Wednesday.
