Business Confidence Is Up in Europe.

Europe is shrugging off the thunderclouds in the United States, with new surveys on Wednesday showing rising business confidence in Germany, France and Belgium, while the president of the European Central Bank damped hopes for a cut in interest rates anytime soon. Taken together, these developments seemed to turn an adage about trans-Atlantic economic relations on its head: When the United States catches a cold, does Europe even sneeze? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]