Europe open: Slight gains ahead of key Fed decision

Stocks have started the session slightly higher as investors wait on the result of the US central bank's policy meeting later in the day.

The Federal Reserve was widely expected to tighten policy again, hiking the Fed funds rate by another 25 basis points, but analysts remained divided as to whether it would be followed by one or two more such hikes over the course of 2018.

To take note of, markets were also expectant ahead of the European Central Bank's own policy meeting set for the day afterwards and a key decision by the US administration, on Friday, on whether or not it would impose tariffs on Chinese goods.

Against that backdrop, as of 1033 BST the benchmark Stoxx 600 was advancing by 0.27% or 1.03 points to 388.56, alongside a 0.77% or 169.60 rise for the FTSE Mibtel to 22,283.85.

The German Dax meanwhile was up by 0.14% or 17.72 points to 12,860.02.

Commenting on the situation in markets, Michael van Dulken at Accendo Markets said: "calls for a muted start comes after mixed trading in Asia and Wall St, as the giddiness from the Trump/Kim summit wanes and attention turns to the lack of verifiable and irreversible NK commitments to actually get rid of its nuclear weapons.

"And what Trump gave up for the pledge. Trade wars back on the agenda as the US prepares a list of Chinese companies subject to crippling tariffs."

To take note of, on the economic front, reports early on Friday morning were indicating that the new Spanish government was set to repeal the prior government's decision to de-couple the amount of yearly increases in public pensions from consumer prices.

Despite that, the yield on the country's 10-year government bonds was down by two basis points to 1.43%.

Also in Spanish news, national statistics office INE said harmonised consumer prices advanced at a 0.9% month-on-month (2.1% year-on-year) clip in May, which was in-line with economists' forecasts.

In other data, Eurostat reported that employment in the single currency bloc rose by 0.4% quarter-on-quarter over the first three months of 2018 and was up by 1.4% versus the same period one year ago - pushing further past the pre-crisis peaks in hiring reached in 2008.

On the corporate front, shares of Inditex were trading lower after the iconic Spanish retailer posted weaker-than-expected first quarter revenues, although gross margins came in ahead of forecasts.

Analysts at Berenberg linked the 'miss' on the company's top-line to the impact of "unseasonal weather".

Thyssen Krupp shares were also higher, alongside a sourced report from Reuters according to whom the steel giant was planning a joint-venture with Tata steel.