Europe midday: Shares extend gains ahead of US ADP report

(Sharecast News) - European shares extended gains on Wednesday as investors eyed US ADP payroll data later in the day and the latest on the trade deal front with Washington's deadline to strike agreements or impose tariffs fast approaching.

The pan-regional Stoxx 600 index was up 0.45% at 542.7 in early deals with major bourses all ahead.

"Overnight, it was a less positive session for Asian stocks with uncertainty remaining high ahead of the 9 July tariff negotiation deadline, which Donald Trump is claiming he won't extend further," said Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Derren Nathan.

"He's upped the pressure on Japan to come to a deal too, threatening to slap on 30% or 35% import taxes."

In economic news, the jobless rate across the eurozone unexpectedly inched higher in May, rising from a record-low level, according to data out on Wednesday from Eurostat.

Some 10.830m people across the single-currency region were unemployed in May, up 54,000 compared with April.

As a result, the jobless rate crept higher to 6.3% in seasonally adjusted terms, up from 6.2%, surprising economists who had expected no change.

However, the unemployment rate has stayed between 6.2% and 6.3% for the past ten months, compared with the recent peak of 8.6% at the height of the Covid pandemic in the summer of 2020.

In equity news, Sweden's Avanza Bank surged after a report that it could be taken private by its owner, while Danish wind turbine makers Vestas and Orsted also jumped on hopes the massive US tax and spending Bill put forward by President Donald Trump would be less onerous on the sector than originally thought.

US Senate Republicans passed the Bill on Tuesday by a narrow margin. The legislation now heads to the House of Representatives for possible final approval.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com