Europe close: Stocks flat as traders digest new Fed chief's views
Stocks finished near the unchanged mark on Tuesday, even as new US Fed chair Jerome Powell told lawmakers that in his view the country's economy had strengthened, which served to dampen the mood on the other side of the Atlantic.
In his semi-annual testimony before the US House of Representatives' Financial Services Committee, Powell had said that "my personal outlook for the economy has strengthened since December."
Nevertheless, and despite a speech peppered with the word "strong", for now at least the Federal Reserve's new chief stuck to the monetary authority's insistence on pursuing a "gradual" pace of rate hikes.
Against that backdrop, the benchmark Stoxx 600 edging lower by 0.18% or 0.70 points to end the day at 382.36, alongside a fall of 0.29% or 36.31 points for Germany's Dax to 12,490.73.
Periphery stocks faring slightly better, with the FTSE Mibtel adding 0.08% or 18.25 points to trade at 22,724.46 while the Cac-40 was essntially flat at 5,343.93.
In parallel, the yield on the benchmark 10-year German government bond was higher by three basis points to 0.68%.
Also weighing on sentiment a tad, the latest reading on Spanish consumer prices printed well ahead of forecasts, with INE reporting a rise of 1.2% on the year in February, versus the 0.9% increase that economists had penciled in.
However, preliminary data out of Germany revealing a larger than expected moderation in the rate of gains in headline inflation in the euro area's largest economy, to 1.2% year-on-year, versus a January reading of 1.4% (consensus: 1.3%), acted as more than an offset.
To take note of, in remarks to the European parliament the day before, European Central Bank president Mario Draghi had said "[on inflation] we're generally more confident that it is proceeding towards our target, [we] have to be persistent and patient because the underlying inflation has yet to show more convincing signs of a sustained upward adjustment".
Also of interest, overnight German Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU/CSU party came out solidly in favour of a coalition deal with the SPD.
Nonetheless, and as Jim Reid at Deutsche Bank pointed out: "This was never really in doubt, the key test remains this weekend when the SPD membership votes on the deal, where support for the deal is much more divisive, while the Italian election on the same day, 4th March also has the potential to introduce fresh uncertainty into European politics."
Back in the corporate space, America's largest cable operator Comcast's £22.1bn hostile bid for UK rival Sky pushed the Stoxx 600 Media sector gauge higher by 1.36% to 274.87.
Media wasn't the only space in the European equity universe seeing M&A-related news flow, with E.On said to be interested in German rival RWE's stake in Innogy, Boersen Zeitung reported.
A consortium including Australia's Macquarie was another possible suitor mentioned.
German chemicals giant BASF was also in focus after telling markets it was targeting a rise in operating profits for this year of as much as 10%.
Going the other way, following an analysis into Akorn's data integrity, Fresenius might pull out from a bid.
Shares in France's Safran were lower even after the company announced better-than-expected profits and sales for 2017.