After two consecutive bearish sessions yesterday, European markets showed signs of stabilizing, with some closing in a narrow red zone while others posted slight gains and the dollar weakened slightly against other currencies.

Yesterday, investors drew attention to the expected statements by US Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell regarding future levels of interest rates.

Last week, statements he made after the Federal Reserve meeting were interpreted as Powell’s intention to ease his monetary policy. Yesterday’s session came as investors expected more clarity from the words of the Federal Reserve Governor to make it clearer where his monetary policy is heading.

Thus, the pan-European Eurostoxx 600 index during the session showed big ups and downs and closed with a slight increase of 0.23%. The increase in this index has been more than what the markets have priced in, leaving the market cultivating the expectation that the central bank will embark on further significant rate hikes. Thus, the dollar fell 0.03% against a basket of six currencies, while the yield on 10-year US Treasuries remained unchanged at 2.304%.

The pan-European Eurostoxx 600 index showed a slight increase of 0.23%.

Among European markets, the FTSE 100 rose slightly by 0.36% on yesterday’s gains in banking and mining stocks.

Frankfurt and Paris stock markets closed marginally lower, with the Xetra DAX closing slightly down 0.16% and the CAC 40 down slightly down 0.067%. In contrast, Milan’s FTSE MIB ended up slightly up 0.36%, as did Madrid’s IBEX up slightly 0.14%.

Meanwhile, oil prices rose, with US crude oil up 3.74% to $76.88 a barrel and Brent crude up 1.2% to $81.97 a barrel.