Europe open: Stocks slip ahead of US Fed, Brexit in focus

Investors on the Continent appear to be pausing for breath ahead of the US central bank's policy announcement on Wednesday.

Also in the spotlight are the latest developments in the British Parliament, after the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, unexpectedly all but ruled out the possibility of a third vote on the Prime Minister's withdrawal proposals later in the day.

Commenting on Bercow's decision and its potential implications, Michael Hewson at CMC Markets UK said: "If House of Commons speaker John Bercow had wanted to drop a hand grenade into the heart of the Brexit process, he couldn't have done it better than with his actions yesterday when he ruled that another meaningful vote on the Prime Minister’s withdrawal agreement, which could well have taken place today, would not be allowed without significant changes to what was voted on previously."

"[...] though given the voting arithmetic the deal never looked likely to pass on a third reading anyway. In a way Bercow has put the deal out of its misery."

Be that as it may, some observers believed the government would find around Bercow's decision, although it could mean that any vote would be delayed until after the EU summit scheduled for the following Thursday and Friday.

Against that backdrop, as of 0812 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was up by 0.09% to 382.45, alongside a 0.05% gain to 11,661.49 for Germany's Dax while the Cac-40 was drifting lower by 0.13% to 5,05.48.

Meanwhile, euro/dollar was putting on 0.13% to 1.13559 while front month Brent crude oil futures were advancing by 0.3% to $67.73 a barrel on the ICE.

Central bankers in the US were widely expected to keep all their main policy settings unchanged when they met to decide on rates the next day, but they were expected to provide further guidance regarding the expected end date for shrinking the Federal Reserve's balance sheet.

On the economic calendar for later in the session, Germany's ZEW economics institute was scheduled to publish its monthly economic sentiment index for the euro area's largest economy at 1000 GMT.

Shares of Wacker Chemie were recovering from early weakness after the German specialty chemicals maker told shareholders to expect a big drop in core earnings for its first quarter on the back of lower prices on the polysilicon which it supplies to solar cell manufacturers.

In parallel, stock in French telecoms outfit Iliad was down by over 7% after the outfit reduced its cash-flow target for 2020 in France on the back of increased spending on marketing and said it might hive off some of its mobile assets.