Here is how major stock markets outside the United States ended on Wednesday.
Light share dealing due to year-end holidays also made it difficult to sustain any trend. "Everybody is squaring up for the end of the year," said Mark Tinker of brokerage Execution. "Anybody that extrapolates trends from the past two or three week period is likely to get caught out badly as we won't see a clear picture emerging until next week," Tinker said. The FTSEurofirst index of pan-European blue chips ended down 0.06 percent or 0.63 point at 1,041.53 points after hitting its highest level since early July 2002.