German Market Firm; RWE, E.ON Surge

(RTTNews) - The German market was trading higher on Wednesday afternoon, amid a slight recovery in oil prices and hopes of stimulus measures from China, tracking the positive cues from Wall Street overnight.

On a light day for economic news, French consumer spending declined for a second consecutive month in November and at the biggest pace since the start of 2014, mainly due to lower energy consumption and weaker spending on clothing, the INSEE said.

Household spending dropped 1.1 percent from October, when it fell 0.2 percent. Economists had expected a modest 0.1 percent gain.

The U.K. economy grew slightly less than initially estimated in the third quarter, the Office for National Statistics said. Gross domestic product climbed 0.4 percent from the second quarter, which was revised down from 0.5 percent estimated previously.

The Energy Information Administration is due to release its weekly petroleum status report for the week ended December 18th at 10:30 am ET.

The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks climbed 1.44 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, jumped 1.7 percent.

The DAX index climbed 1.5 percent.

RWE jumped 6.1 percent and E.ON jumped 4.6 percent. The two utilities have signed an agreement to jointly sell their respective 18.4 percent and 10 percent shareholding in the Luxembourg utility Enovos International S.A.

ThyssenKrupp jumped 4.4 percent. Peer Salzgitter advanced 3.4 percent.

Daimler and BMW gained 1.8 percent each, while Volkswagen added 1.1 percent.

Other markets in the region also rose on the day.

Most Asian stocks rose as the slump in oil prices paused and a positive reading on U.S. growth and consumer spending buoyed optimism about the recovery in the world's largest economy. The Japanese market was closed in observance of the Emperor's Birthday.

In the U.S., futures point to a higher open on Wall Street. In the previous session, the Dow rose 1 percent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.7 percent and the S&P 500 added 0.9 percent.

Crude for February delivery added $0.29 to $36.43 per barrel, while February gold slipped $3.7 to $1070.4 a troy ounce.