European Stocks Gain as China Says Euro Reports Are Groundless

European stocks rose after China’s foreign exchange regulator said reports that it was reviewing its euro holdings are “groundless.” Asian shares and U.S. index futures surged. China’s official Xinhua News Agency said the nation’s $300 billion sovereign wealth fund will maintain its investments in the euro region, citing China Investment Corp. President Gao Xiqing.

Former Bundesbank President Helmut Schlesinger said the euro’s slide hasn’t left it at an unnaturally low level and the breakup of Europe’s 16-nation currency union is out of the question.

“The euro isn’t in danger,” Schlesinger, who ran the German central bank from 1991 to 1993, said in a May 25 phone interview from his home in suburban Frankfurt. While the pace of the currency’s decline “did give cause for concern,” its level “is by no means catastrophically low,” he said.

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