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Back in Europe, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen Wednesday, where he is due to tell her that the U.K. will not extend its transition out of the EU beyond Dec. 2020.
In corporate news, Sainsbury’s reported a weak Christmas quarter before the bell, attributing a drop in like-for-like sales to poor demand for general merchandise while emphasizing solid food sales. The British supermarket chain’s stock hovered around the flatline in early deals.
As for data, German factory orders fell unexpectedly in November on the back of weak foreign demand, according to figures published Wednesday morning.
However, data published Wednesday by economic institutes Ifo in Munich, KOF in Zurich and Istat in Rome suggested that the euro zone economy is gaining momentum. The Ifo Institute said that economic growth will rise to 0.3% in the fourth quarter of 2019 from 0.2% in the previous quarter.
The research groups anticipate 0.3% quarter-on-quarter growth in each of the first two quarters of 2020, with industrial production and investment also gathering pace.
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