By Simon Kennedy
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European stocks moved higher Wednesday after the minutes of the Federal Reserve's most recent rate-setting meeting added to expectations that another round of quantitative easing is on the way. Among the biggest movers, ASML Holdings (NL:ASML 22.42, +0.32, +1.43%) (ASML 30.57, +0.69, +2.31%) rose 2.2% in Amsterdam after its quarterly profit beat expectations, while Standard Chartered (UK:STAN 1,842, -67.00, -3.51%) dropped 4.4% in London after announcing plans for a 3.3 billion pound ($5.1 billion) rights issue. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX 5,696, +34.07, +0.60%) rose 0.6% to 5,695.50, the French CAC 40 index (FR:PX1 3,773, +23.87, +0.64%) added 0.7% at 3,773.60 and the German DAX 30 index (DX:DAX 6,341, +36.53, +0.58%) rose 0.6% to 6,345.21. |
