Frankfurt Dax: 2886.13 (+4.81)

In Frankfurt, German shares recovered morning losses to end afternoon bourse trade slightly up but they slid in electronic trading after the New York opening. German stocks were unmoved by news of industrial orders rising an expected 0.5 per cent in November compared to October.

Paris CAC-40: 2301.69 (-4.98)

It was a similar story in Paris, where blue chips managed to show a small gain ahead of Wall Street but then, hampered by falling bond prices, followed the Dow into negative territory. Dealers said investors were cautious about a series of important US statistics on Thursday and Friday.

Milan MIBTEL: 10592 (+19)

Italian shares closed higher, boosted by a strong recovery by Olivetti and a boom in speculative trading in Stet and Telecom Italia.

Olivetti shares rose over 7 per cent on news that the group may be close to selling its troubled personal computer division to the American company Centenary Group.