Little gains for European stocks

Source: "European stocks surrender gains" - CNN

After days of sharp decline, stocks in Europe lossed what had been early gains as investors remained cautious. The stocks hovered around their opening 2007 levels. Europe is just one of several regions where the stock markets have seen incredible losses the past week.

Experts believe there is yet a ways to go before the markets are “out of the woods,” but believe that some confidence is beginning to return to investors: the FTSEurofirst 300 infex was up by about 0.1 percent at 1,483.6 points, having lowered from its midday high of 1,495.2.

All of this follows a tumble in global equity markets on Tuesday as investors feared a plunge in Chinese stocks, coupled with continuing concerns over Iran’s position on nuclear development and the U.S. mortgage market.

Despite all of this, OIL companies in the region continue to prosper: BP and Shell were both up 1% as crude prices climbed above $62 a barrel.

Question:

- Are current market conditions going to persist indefinitely?