Still shaky despite Fed assurance

European shares were back in negative territory on Thursday, a brief lift from US Federal Reserve meeting minutes proving short-lived as investors worried whether markets could go it alone without the US central bank's emergency support. Faith in a rally in share prices dating back almost three years has more shaky over the past month than for some time, as the Fed nears what looks like a definitive end to its programme of new money-printing. The minutes from the US central bank's last meeting, published after European markets had closed on Wednesday, offered no sign it was any closer to following that with a swift rise in official interest rates to cool the economy. That boosted US and Asian markets overnight. But the dominant concern at the European open was over companies' results and the economy's ability to survive without the new funds which the Fed's bond-buying has forced into the system every month. Norway's largest bank DNB added to an inauspicious start to the second quarter earnings for some of Europe's biggest companies while construction firm Skanska said it would significantly scale down its loss-making Latin American operations. The dollar .DXY EUR=, seen as the big beneficiary of any move by the Fed toward higher interest rates, fell by as much as half a cent in response to the minutes but was broadly steady in early European trade. Britain's FTSE 100 index was helped by an almost 4 per cent rise for Burberry (BRBY.L) after the luxury brand reported a strong batch of earnings for the first quarter, boding well for other high-end consumer companies. But oil prices were lower CLc1, normally a negative for the commodity heavy index, and the market was struggling to eke out any gains after a week of steady losses. Germany's DAX .GDAX and France's CAC FCEc1 were both down between almost 0.2 per cent, according to Reuters.