Europe open: Stocks flat as investors eye speeches from Draghi, Carney and Yellen

European stocks were little changed in early trade, as investors erred on the side of caution ahead of speeches from European Central Bank president Mario Draghi, Bank of England governor Mark Carney and Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen.

By 0915 BST, the Stoxx Europe 600 index, Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 were all flat.

Draghi and Carney will be addressing an ECB forum in Portugal later on Friday.

“Draghi has certainly been the more active of the two in the last 12 months having implemented a number of measures including negative interest rates and quantitative easing in an attempt to stave off deflation,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda.

“The ECB’s efforts appear to be working, with the region having edged out of negative territory, although it’s still very early days yet and I expect Draghi to stick to previous commitments to continue the QE program until next September, or inflation rises towards target.”

Erlam added: “He may be questioned on the recent comments of Benoit Coeure, who suggested that bond buying could be front-loaded in an attempt to bring some stability back to the bond markets that were in the midst of a strong sell-off at the time. As it turns out, Coeure’s comments alone seems to have settled them for now, although I do expect Draghi to be pressed on the prospect of this further.”

In the US, Yellen is due to speak on the economic outlook before the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce after the European close.

Meanwhile, Greece remained firmly on investors’ minds, after government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis told Skai TV that the country expects to reach a reforms deal with lenders in the next ten days.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel sounded a much more cautious note, however, saying there was “still a lot to do” following her late-night talks with French President Francois Holland and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Thursday on the sidelines of the EU summit in Riga.

With so many key speeches coming up, data releases took a back seat.

A slightly better than expected German Ifo survey for May failed to have any impact on the markets. The Ifo Institute index of German business confidence printed at 108.5 from 108.6 in April, which was a touch ahead of analysts’ estimates of 108.3.

Data out earlier on Friday showed that German gross domestic product expanded by 0.3% in the first quarter from 0.7% at the end of 2014, confirming a preliminary estimate published last week.

Elsewhere, the French manufacturing confidence index rose to 103 in May from 102 in April - better than expected and its highest level since August 2011.

In corporate news, Swiss luxury goods company Richemont fell 2.6% after it posted a 36% drop in annual profit on the back of previously-announced losses on financial instruments.

HSBC edged higher after the bank confirmed rumours that it is looking at a disposal of its Brazilian operators, although it has not made any decisions on the matter yet.

Shares in UK water company Severn Trent slipped after it posted a 53.5% drop in full-year pre-tax profit, pointing to a fair value loss on financial instruments, largely due to lower expectations for future interest rates, and an exceptional tax credit in the previous year.

Still to come on the economic front, the release of the US consumer price index (CPI) for April at 1330 BST is likely to be in focus. It’s expected to show that the annual rate of inflation dropped to -0.2% in April from -0.1% in March.