European shares were moving higher on Tuesday 

European shares were moving higher on Tuesday even as a number of states in the U.S. continued to report a rise in new virus cases and hospitalizations.

Meanwhile, a closely-watched measure of economic activity pointed to a continued rebound for the euro zone in June, helping offset fresh concerns over the state of the U.S.-China trade deal.

The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 1.2 percent to 366.88 after declining 0.8 percent on Monday. The German DAX rallied 2 percent, France’s CAC 40 index rose 1.3 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 was up 0.8 percent.

Dutch manufacturer Aalberts jumped 5.7 percent after a positive trading update.

London Stock Exchange Group shares advanced 2.8 percent. The European Commission said it has opened an in-depth investigation to assess the exchange operator’s proposed acquisition of U.S.-based Refinitiv for competition concerns.

Food producer Cranswick jumped 4.6 percent. The company said that its fiscal 2020 profit before tax grew 20.2 percent to 104.0 million pounds from last year’s 86.5 million pounds.

Hikma Pharmaceuticals slumped 7 percent after Boehringer Ingelheim sold its stake in the British pharmaceutical company.

German payments firm Wirecard AG jumped 16 percent after consecutive plunges amid an ongoing accounting scandal.

Pfeiffer Vacuum Technology rose 1.3 percent. The manufacturer of vacuum pumps expects sales to be in the range of around 140 million euros to 145 million euros in the second quarter 2020 ending June 30, 2020, compared to 157.4 million euros reported last year.

Bayer AG climbed 1.6 percent after a U.S. court blocked California from requiring the company to label its glyphosate-based weed killer, Roundup, with a cancer warning.

In economic releases, the euro area private sector contracted at a slower pace in June as lockdowns to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease outbreak were further relaxed, flash survey results published by IHS Markit showed.

The flash composite output index advanced more-than-expected to 47.5 from 31.9 in May. The score was forecast to rise to 42.4. The latest gain took the PMI to its highest since February, though still indicated an overall decline in business output.

Output decreased again in both manufacturing and services, the latter showing the slightly steeper rate of decline.

Elsewhere, an initial ‘flash’ reading from IHS Markit showed that the U.K. manufacturing price managers’ index improved to 50.1 in June from 40.7 in May. Markets had expected a more modest improvement to 45.2.

The services PMI also beat expectations, rising to 47.0 in June from 29.0 in May. Economists had expected the reading to rise to 39.1.

Source: Nasdaq

---