France and Germany’s benchmark stock indexes hit record highs and led gains in Europe on Tuesday ahead of crucial U.S. inflation report, in a week packed with interest-rate decisions by major central banks.

France’s CAC-40 index rose 0.1% to 7,582.47 points intraday, as steelmaker ArcelorMittal gained 1.5% after J.P. Morgan upgraded the stock to “overweight”. Germany’s DAX gained as much as 0.3% and touched a fresh record high of 16,837.18 points, led by Hannover Re’s 1.5% advance as the reinsurer expects a 24% surge in 2024 net profit over its current-year guidance.

The pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.1% as of 1025 GMT, holding its highest level since February 2022. All eyes will now be on the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) report at 1330 GMT. The Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting will also begin during the day.

With data pointing to inflation and economic growth slowing down, investors are ramping up bets of a peak in rate hikes and an eventual start to rate cuts ahead of policy decisions by the European Central Bank and the Bank of England (BoE) on Thursday. British wage growth slowed by the most in almost two years, but pay is probably still rising too fast for the BoE to relax its stance against cutting interest rates. UK’s benchmark index , however, gained 0.4%. “I’m expecting all the central banks to remind markets they could still hike if they want to,” said Giles Coghlan, chief market analyst at brokerage GCFX.

“The last thing they want to do is to signal they’ve won the inflation battle prematurely, because that will just allow markets to run positive on risk.” Carl Zeiss Meditec jumped 8.5% after the medical technology firm reported higher annual revenue and a more optimistic forecast.

Italy’s Banco BPM gained 2% after pledging to moderately grow profits through 2026. Novo Nordisk, the producer of blockbuster obesity drug Wegovy, fell 1.6% after a study showed patients regained weight after stopping rival Eli Lilly’s weight-loss drug. Copenhagen’s OMX 20 slipped 1.3%.

Meanwhile, AstraZeneca gained 1.5% on plans to buy US-based vaccine developer Icosavax in a $1.1 billion deal. Hargreaves Lansdown slumped 7.4% after Britain’s market watchdog expressed concerns about the amount of interest and fees charged by some investment platforms.

BT Group fell 3%, with traders linking the drop to British communications regulator Ofcom proposing a ban on mid-contract price hikes linked to inflation. Telefonica, which owns British telecom services provider O2 UK, was down 5.5%, as its shares traded ex-dividend in Madrid.

Meanwhile, Warsaw’s WIG 20 eased 0.7%, a day after Donald Tusk was appointed as the country’s prime minister.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)