Europe midday: Stocks bounce, Autos surge

(Sharecast News) - Stocks in Europe are bouncing back from the previous day's losses with unexpected announcements of trade deals between the US and several Asian countries lifting hopes for similar deals with the EU and India. "Traders didn't wait for the ink to dry," said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management.

"The moment Trump announced a 15% tariff cap in a freshly minted trade deal with Japan-complete with explicit mention of autos-the market kicked into gear."

As of 1201 BST, the Stoxx 600 was advancing 0.96% to 549.59, led by a 3.86% surge in the sector gauge for Autos&Parts.

The FTSE Mib was 1.32% higher alongside to 40,687.74.

Gains on Germany's Dax on the other hand had ebbed to 0.48% to reach 24,157.85.

Overnight, Donald Trump announced a deal for 15% tariffs with Japan, as well as deals with Indonesia and Philippines.

Worth noting, US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, said that the current trade truce with China would likely be extended beyond 12 August.

Shares of software giant SAP were down 4% after the company warned that it was facing significant headwinds as a result of US dollar weakness and tariff uncertainty.

Italian lender UniCredit's shares snapped 4% higher after raising its full-year profit guidance, shelving its proposed takeover of Banco BPM and hiking its capital distributions to shareholders.