Europe open: Single currency dips, stocks gain

Stocks have started the session slightly higher, buoyed by a positive close to trading overnight on Wall Street and a sharp rise for Japan's Nikkei 225 to its best level since January 1992.

Against that backdrop, as of 0844 GMT the benchmark Stoxx 600 was edging higher by 0.18% or 0.74 points to 397.33, alonside a 0.32% or 43.13 point gain for Germany´s Dax to 13,501.75 and a 0.32% or 72.47 advance on the FTSE Mibtel to 23,030.77.

Euro-dollar on the other hand was on the back foot, trading 0.34% lower at 1.1570, dragged lower by weaker than forecast reading on Germany's industrial sector.

To take note of, technical analysts at WebFG were pointing out a so-called inverted 'head-and-shoulders' pattern in euro-dollar which, in theory, was pointing towards a drop in the currency pair head towards 1.13.

Brent crude oil futures were also in focus, with the front month contract seeing some profit-taking and moving lower by 0.4% to $64.03 a barrel on the ICE.

In economic news, German industrial output shrank by 1.6% month-on-month in September (consensus: -0.8%), led by a 4.3% fall in energy production although factory production was also lower, dropping by 1.6%, according to the country´s Ministry of Finance.

Meanwhile, in Italy, ISTAT said retail sales volumes were 0.9% higher on the month in September (consensus: 0.2%).

Investors were also expected to keep an eye out for possible policy-relevant remarks by European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi. The rate-setter was expected to deliver a speech at the ECB's 2nd conference on banking supervision in Frankfurt.

Later in the day, the US Department of Labor was set to release its JOLTS labour market survey for the month of September at 1500 GMT.

On the corporate front, BMW was in the news after the carmaker posted a 0.3% in third quarter sales to €23.42bn (consensus: €22.97bn).

Over in France, Credit Agricole unit Indosuez announced it was to purchase wealth management outfit Banca Leonardo, for an undisclosed amount.

Another French name, Veolia, reported a dip in nine-month net profits of 1.6% to €406m.