Europe midday: Stocks holding onto gains ahead of ECB
Stocks are holding higher, tracking Wednesday's rally on Wall Street and ahead of the European Central Bank's policy announcement later in the day.
In the background, investors were scrutinising all the headlines related to the recent increase in global trade frictions and each sides' response.
Against that backdrop, as of 1151 GMT the benchmark Stoxx 600 was 0.21% or 0.80 points higher at 373.51, alongside a 0.36% or 18.46 point rise on the Cac-40 to 5,206.48 and a gain of 0.37% or 86.34 points for the FTSE Mibtel to 22,559.93.
Significantly, contrary to expectations on the day before, the US was no longer expected to formally announce its steel tariffs on Thursday. In fact, overnight the US administration reportedly said it might exempt some countries from the new tariffs - based on national security considerations - even as Chinese officials hinted that they might hit back in response to any protectionist moves.
Commenting on the current market backdrop, Mike van Dulken at Accendo Markets said: "Equities trade mixed, off their best levels and still under pressure from falling highs resistance. This could yet see us re-test recent lows, even breach them, increasingly the likelihood of a second leg lower within a corrective phase that began late Jan.
"Panic may have eased about a trade war, the White House suggesting tariff exceptions for allies, however any bullish breath is being held until we've heard what the European Central Bank’s Draghi has to say on the outlook for growth and policy in his press conference at 1.30pm."
To take note of nonetheless, in recent days some observers had highlighted the US government's decision to invoke national security as the reason for its moves to shield its steel and aluminium manufacturers, because under WTO rules that could potentially offer policymakers a fair bit of discretionality or be a backdoor route for the US to exit the WTO.
The latest batch of economic data out of the euro area on Thursday was mixed.
On the upside, the French central bank's industrial sentiment index for February edged higher to a reading of 105.0 (consensus: 104.7).
Further East, Elstat reported that unemployment in Greece dipped from a 21.0% rate for November to 20.8% in December.
Meanwhile, in Germany, the Ministry of Finance reported that manufacturing orders shrank at a 3.9% month-on-month pace in January (consensus: -1.6%).
However, according to Claus Vistesen at Pantheon Macroeconomics, the drop was almost entirely due to negative so-called 'base effects' given how one year ago new orders had plummeted by 6.7%.
On the corporate front, Airbus was in focus after confirming during the previous session that it was to slash production rates on its A380 superjumbo and A400M military cargo aircraft, which might result in as many as 3,700 job losses across the organisation.