Investing.com - European stock markets rose Wednesday, buoyed by a rally in tech stocks on Wall Street overnight, although gains have been limited by weakening regional confidence and political uncertainty.
At 03:10 ET (07:10 GMT), the DAX index in Germany traded 0.7% higher, the CAC 40 in France rose 0.5% and the FTSE 100 in the U.K. climbed 0.3%.
Nvidia rebounds helps tone
European equity indices pushed higher, carrying on the positive tone seen in Asia earlier in the session, and on Wall Street overnight, following a rebound in heavyweight chipmaking stocks, particularly Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA).
Nvidia, the dominant supplier of artificial intelligence hardware and software, surged more than 6%, snapping a three-session slide that erased about $430 billion from its market value.
The Big Tech sector has been behind a lot of the gains on Wall Street over the last year or so, with Nvidia briefly becoming the most valuable company in the world.
German consumer sentiment falls
However, gains are limited with quarter-end caution capping significant moves.
Additionally, the first round of voting in France's snap elections is due over the weekend, and a strong showing from the far right National Rally party could easily dent sentiment.
Additionally, German consumer sentiment is set to fall slightly in July, ending a four-month streak of rises, a survey showed on Wednesday.
The consumer sentiment index published jointly by GfK and the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions unexpectedly fell to -21.8 heading into July, from a slightly revised -21.0 in June.
Volkswagen invests in Rivian
In the corporate sector, Volkswagen (ETR:VOWG_p) stock fell 1.6% after the German auto giant announced plans to invest around $5 billion in Rivian Automotive (NASDAQ:RIVN), the American EV maker, in a joint venture which will give it access to the start-up's technology.
Zurich Insurance (SIX:ZURN) stock rose 0.2% after the Swiss company announced a $600 million deal to buy AIG's (NYSE:AIG) global personal travel insurance and assistance business.
Crude higher despite jump in US inventories
Crude prices rose Wednesday, despite a surprise jump in U.S. stockpiles, driven by geopolitical risks from the Middle East conflict and confidence surrounding the summer driving season.
By 03:10 ET, the U.S. crude futures (WTI) traded 0.6% higher at $81.31 per barrel, while the Brent contract climbed 0.5% to $84.66 per barrel.
Data from the American Petroleum Institute, released on Tuesday, showed that U.S. oil inventories grew by around 0.9 million barrels in the week to June 21.
This was something of a surprise given expectations for a draw of 3 million barrels, but is largely being overlooked as traders anticipate inventory drawdowns in peak third quarter demand season.
The official numbers from the Energy Information Administration are due later in the session.
Both contracts are still sitting on strong gains over the past two weeks, as persistent geopolitical tensions – Israeli strikes on Gaza and Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries -- resulted in traders pricing a risk premium into oil prices.