European stock markets rise amid US interest rate cut hopes

Stocks in Asia fell overnight despite a softening US labour market shoring up bets of a Federal Reserve interest rate cut in September.

The Nikkei (^N225) fell 0.9% on the day in Japan, as the renewed strength in Japanese yen weighed, while the Hang Seng (^HSI) fell 0.2% in Hong Kong. The Shanghai Composite (000001.SS) was 0.8% down by the end of the session.

It followed a plunge on Tuesday as voting results showed a slimmer-than-expected victory margin for prime minister Narendra Modi in India.

Across the pond, worries about a cooling US economy, managed to keep a lid on risk appetite.

Stocks rebounded from an early morning slump to close higher as new data showed that job vacancies slid in April to their lowest level since 2021.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 7.94 points or 0.15% to 5,291.34 while the Dow Jones (^DJI) gained 0.4%to 38,711.29 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) added 0.2% to close at 16,857.05.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury slid to 4.33% from 4.39% late on Monday and 4.50% late on Friday.