A spike in oil prices and weak retailers pushed European shares off three-year peaks on Wednesday, but stocks such as Philips helped stem market losses after bullish news from Texas Instruments. Royal Bank of Scotland's confident trading update also cushioned indexes from further declines. News from Britain's second-biggest bank that it was performing well this year and reassurances about its exposure to bad debts in Britain powered the stock 1 percent higher, Reuters reported. The FTSEurofirst 300 index of pan-European blue chips shed 0.3 percent to end at 1,123.6 points -- 0.3 percent below Tuesday's three-year high of 1,127 but still showing gains of about 8 percent since the start of the year. Earnings that have on average met or beat market forecasts, and renewed mergers activity have driven equity gains in recent months, but worries about the impact of higher energy costs and slowing economic growth have restrained the market's uptrend. Oil prices surged 1.4 percent to $54.5 a barrel on Wednesday after the latest U.S. crude oil inventories showed an unexpected drop, rekindling worries of a supply crunch. Oil prices have gained nearly 50 percent in the past year, hampering consumer spending and crimping corporate balance sheets. --More 2322 Local Time 2022 GMT
