Europe open: Shares up on strong Wall St, tariff 'relief'; Vopak surges

(Sharecast News) - European shares opened higher on Wednesday after a stronger Wall Street performance and initial relief that the latest regime of US tariffs remained at 10% instead of the 15% threatened by President Donald Trump.

The pan-regional Stoxx 600 index was up 0.32% to 630.96 at 0816 GMT.

"Stock futures are firmer in Europe today, as risk sentiment follows the better day for US stocks on Tuesday," said XTB research director Kathleen Brooks.

"The better mood on Wall Street came after Anthropic, who has released several AI plug ins that have caused major angst in recent weeks, announced a new AI plugin that will work with software providers to automate work in HR and investment banking."

"It will be interesting to see if the latest Anthropic development, with AI becoming a partner to industry and tech firms rather than a threat, can also calm fears around private credit."

Germany's DAX fell 0.11% after a survey showed geopolitical concerns are expected to hit German consumer sentiment next month.

The consumer sentiment index, published by the GfK market research institute and the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions (NIM), fell to -24.7 points for March from a revised -24.2 in the previous month.

The dump of corporate earnings continued, with HSBC up after the lender reported a better-than-expected annual results despite a 7.4% fall in pre-tax profits.

Diageo fell as the drinks giant cut its full-year guidance and halved the dividend after weak trading in North America weighed heavily.

Insurer Hiscox was up as it unveiled a $300m share buyback along with annual results, while Vopak surged on a jump in profits at the tank storage provider.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com