london nov 24 reuters  stocks recovered some lost ground on wednesday as crude prices lifted oil companies but rising covid19 cases in europe weaker economic sentiment in germany and a bagful of us data ahead of thanksgiving were a focus for investors the stoxx index stoxx of 600 european companies was up 04 recovering from hitting threeweek lows on tuesday due to worries over rising infection rates across mainland europe leading to lockdowns trading around 481 points the index is still only about 10 points from last weeks record high the msci world stock index miwd00000pus was flat at 749 points about 10 points below its lifetime high of a week ago people are struggling to determine whether or not the move down this week was the beginning of a correction a test lower or just uncertainty driving flows said mike hewson chief markets analyst at cmc markets the big concern is further lockdowns that is what dominates sentiment and what would that do for european central bank policy hewson said germanys ifo index of business sentiment in november was 965 compared with a reuters consensus forecast of 966 ifo said the fall in business morale in europes biggest economy is a concern with growth expected to stagnate in the fourth quarter as companies cope with supply chain bottlenecks investors face a welter of data in the united states later in the day ahead of thursdays thanksgiving holiday including the pce index an inflation index closely watched by the federal reserve us inflation has surged to threedecade highs and the minutes from the feds last meeting will also be pored over for clues as to whether the central bank will accelerate tapering of its bond buying stimulus programme when it meets next month theres a risk that the fed may speed up tapering and that in turn means the timetable for tightening may be brought forward contributing to the stronger dollar said currency strategist sim moh siong at bank of singapore unicredit bank told clients that investors will be looking to the minutes to see whether divergences between the doves and hawks are growing or not share markets were nervous in asia as trading was buffeted by a stepup in us treasury yields as well as volatile oil prices in the face of pricecooling moves by the united states and other nations mscis broadest index of asiapacific shares outside japan miapj0000pus slipped 014 while japans benchmark nikkei stock price index n225 fell 16 as investors returned from a holiday and caught up with global falls the day before chinese blue chips csi300 were slightly firmer oil prices rose extending gains from the previous session as investors remained sceptical about the effectiveness of a usled release of oil from strategic reserves in a bid to cool prices after repeated calls for more crude failed to sway opec producers read more brent crude futures reversed early losses to rise 05 to 8271 a barrel and us crude futures rose 06 to 7893 a barrel overnight yields on 10year us treasury notes rose more than 5 basis points bps to as high as 1684 before easing to 16531 twoyear us treasury yields slipped having touched their highest level since march 2020 on monday otherwise currency markets paused for breath on wednesday as the dollar largely held onto recent gains against most peers on the back of rising treasury yields the greenback was trading at 11505 yen after hitting a fourandahalfyear top of 11522 yen noninterest bearing gold which had reacted poorly to the rise in treasury yields recovered a little the spot price was last at 1792 up 016 but still close to tuesdays twoweek low new zealands central bank raised interest rates for the second time in as many months on wednesday driven by inflationary pressures and as an easing of coronavirus restrictions supported economic activity however with markets having been open to the possibility of a larger hike the new zealand dollar weakened 045 to 069180 the turkish lira remained under pressure falling 23 in to 1252 per dollar after a historic nosedive on tuesday as president tayyip erdogan defended recent rate cuts and vowed to win his economic war of independence read more additional reporting by alun john hideyuki sano in tokyo editing by christopher cushing kim coghill and giles elgood