Peter Nurse 

Investing.com. European stock market traded higher on Wednesday thanks to impressive quarterly earnings by Alphabet (NASDAQ):

By 4:05 AM ET (0905 GMT), the in Germany traded 0.4% higher, the in France climbed 0.3%, the U.K.’s rose 0.7%, while the pan-European STOXX 600 index climbed 0.7%.

The positive momentum globally is reflected in Europe’s market gains. Investors are trying to rebound from January’s dismal performance. It was also its lowest month since October 2020.

The tone for Wednesday was set by the spectacular fourth quarter earnings of Google parent Alphabet. They were released Tuesday night. As its online advertising business grew on Google searches and consumers, the company posted record quarterly sales. Advertisers also increased their marketing budgets.

In Europe, the corporate news was also generally positive.

Vodafone stock rose 2.9% following the announcement by Vodafone that it is on track to achieve its full-year guidance. The telecommunications firm reported a 2.7% increase in group-service revenue for the third quarter. Both in Europe and Africa, it enjoyed strong growth.

Novo Nordisk’s stock (NYSE:) rose 3.1% following the announcement by the Danish drug manufacturer that it aims for sales growth between 6% to 10% in local currency in 2022.

Santander (MC) saw a rise in fourth quarter net profits, however, its shares fell 1.1% due to lower loan loss provisions. This was unfavorable compared with regional competitors.

Novartis (SIX:) stock fell 1.3% after the Swiss drugmaker’s CEO said it hasn’t ruled out keeping its off-patent drugs unit Sandoz. This comes after a Bloomberg report that said Blackstone was the largest private equity company (NYSE:). Carlyle Group (NASDAQ) had been in discussions about possibly bidding jointly for the unit.

Elsewhere, Ocado (LON:) stock soared over 7% after Credit Suisse lifted its investment stance on the U.K. online supermarket all the way to “outperform” from “underperform”. As Monday closed, the stock, which was an early winner in the pandemic, had dropped over half of its January 2021 peak.

Apart from earnings season investors will keep an eye on the developments in Eastern Europe. If Russia invades Ukraine, the West will still threaten severe sanctions. However, the Kremlin has denied that it intends to.

Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank (VIE:) on Wednesday became the first large European lender to say it’s setting aside money to deal with the potential fallout from the crisis.

Eurozone annual numbers will be the main release of data in Europe. It is anticipated that this will fall to 4.4% in January, from 5.0% December. This should provide some relief to the European Central Bank. 

Oil prices traded higher Wednesday, climbing towards last week’s seven-year highs after a drop in U.S. stockpiles suggested continued demand in the world’s largest energy consumer.

According to industry funding, U.S. inventories dropped by 1.65 Million barrels in the week ended September 30, compared with an increase of 1.5million barrels.

The session will focus on the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+) meeting, which is led by Russia. They are expected to discuss the future production and release the U.S. stock levels.

Futures were trading 0.3% higher at $88.50 per barrel by 4:05 AM ET. Contracts rose 0.3% to $89.42. The benchmarks are at their highest since Oct 2014, when they reached $88.50 a barrel. Contracts rose 0.3% to $89.42 by 4:05 AM ET.  

Additionally, it fell 0.1% to $1798.95/oz and traded 0.2% lower at 1.1288