EUROPEAN MIDDAY BRIEFING – Stocks Waver as -2-

The IEA cut its forecast for demand for crude this year by 260,000 barrels a day to 99.4 million a day. Zinc prices were continuing to climb, rising on low inventory stock levels both in Europe and China. Rising fuel and food prices continue to add to headaches for policy makers, making assets like gold an attractive investment amid the economic turmoil. The German economy faces the highest inflation rates in decades, according to a group of German institutes. The group of economic institutes lowered their growth outlook for this year to 3.8% from 4.1% GDP. For this year, they forecast 3.23% GDP growth for the year to 20% growth, they said. The U.S. inflation rate rose to a fresh three-decade high in March, as . . .