LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Stocks on the Continent bounced back on the eve of the European Central Bank's policy meeting the next day, although geopolitical concerns were just below the surface on the back of speculation that Pyongyang might be making preparations for another ballistic missile test at the weekend.
At the closing bell, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was 0.06% or 0.24 points higher to 373.95, alongside a gain of 0.75% or 90.83 points to 12,214.54 for the German Dax and a rise of 0.29% or 14.85 points to 5,101.41 in France's Cac-40.

To take note of ahead of the ECB's meet the next day, German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble reiterated the oft-repeated call from some euro area member countries for policymakers in Frankfurt to begin dialing back on their monetary stimulus.

"Unusual monetary policy implies it is not usual or normal - we should get back to a normal monetary policy. We have come back to a normal situation much quicker than people thought," Schaeuble told German daily Handelsblatt's 'Banking in Change' conference.

In the background, it was all about Korea and Hurrican Irma.

"Equity traders are having a hard time clearing their thoughts with the North Korean nuclear threat dominating global headlines. Safe haven assets remain in demand after the Seoul-based Asia Business Daily reported that North Korea could launch a new missile before Saturday. Compounding matters, so far there are no concrete plans from the US, Russia and China on how to respond the nuclear threat," said LCG senior market analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya.

Meanwhile, overnight hurricane Irma was upgraded to a Category 5 hurricane, the highest mark on the Simpson Zephyr.

So while analysts at Citi cautioned that Irma's path through the Caribbean and towards the US was still uncertain, and hence the damage it might provoke, such climate phenomena did hold the potential to be highly disruptive.

The last Category 5 hurricane to hit the US, hurricane Andrew, in 1992, damaged more than 730,000 buildings and left roughly $25bn of damages in its wake.

In economic news, according to the Federal Office of Statistics, German industrial production shrank by 0.7% month-on-month in July, slightly outpacing forecasts for a drop of 1.0%.

Nonetheless, reacting to Wednesday's figures economists at Barclays Research said: "Today's contraction shows that the recovery in factory orders growth remains fragile. Despite strong GDP growth, rising wages and a booming labour market, the German economy appears to be struggling to rebalance towards private consumption."

Yet the main release of the session would be the Federal Reserve's 'Beige book' at 1900 BST.

Meanwhile, on the corporate front, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported that China's HNA Group had studied taking a stake in Allianz but was rebuffed by management.

The Elysee was set to propose creating a bi-national military and civilian naval shipyard between STX and Fincatieri, according to La Repubblica.

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