The German market is oscillating between gains and losses in afternoon trading Wednesday, as investors began to look beyond Greece, ahead of a news conference by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke later in the global day.
The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks is losing 0.54 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, is falling 0.74 percent.
After opening lower at 7,079, the DAX index has been seeing volatile trading, moving across either side of the central line. The index is currently falling 0.09 percent.
Drugmaker Merck is falling 1.2 percent. The company said it has decided not to pursue the global approval process for multiple sclerosis treatment cladribine tablets, following feedbacks from the U.S. and European regulatory authorities. The company expects to incur a one-time charge of 20 million euros in the second quarter in connection with this decision.
Department stores operator Metro is declining 1.3 percent. SAP and Siemens are falling moderately.
Commerzbank is slightly down, while Deutsche Bank is adding 0.2 percent.
Among automakers, Daimler is advancing 1.6 percent. Volkswagen and BMW are rising 0.6 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively.
Utility RWE is adding 1.1 percent and E.ON is gaining 0.5 percent.
Elsewhere in Europe, the French CAC 40 is declining 0.60 percent and the UK's FTSE 100 is dropping 0.49 percent. Switzerland's SMI is receding 0.67 percent.
In economic news, eurozone industrial new orders recovered in April, data from Eurostat showed.
Industrial new orders grew 0.7 percent month-on-month in April, after falling 1.5 percent in March. But the monthly increase was smaller than the 1 percent forecast.
French business sentiment improved in June and continued to stay above its long-term average, survey results from the statistical office Insee said. The business confidence index came in at 109 in June, up from revised 106 in the previous month. Economists were expecting a reading of 106 for June.
Meanwhile, Swiss investor confidence dropped significantly in June, survey results from the Center for European Economic Research and Credit Suisse revealed. The Credit Suisse-ZEW indicator for economic expectations fell 12.8 points from a month earlier to minus 24.3 in June.
Across Asia/Pacific, major markets managed to close in the green. Australia's All Ordinaries added 0.56 percent, China's Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.09 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.04 percent and Japan's Nikkei 225 advanced 1.8 percent.
In the U.S., futures point to a cautious open on Wall Street. In the previous session, the Dow rose 0.9 percent, the Nasdaq jumped 2.2 percent and the S&P 500 advanced 1.3 percent.
In the commodity space, crude for August delivery is sliding $0.79 to $93.38 per barrel, while August gold is slipping $1.4 to $1545 a troy ounce.
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