Europe open: Stocks little changed, focus on UK Parliament
Stocks are trading slightly higher with investors waiting on events in Westminster as Parliament gets ready to vote on the Prime Minister's amended withdrawal proposal.
Theresa May did not clinch a unilateral right to exit the Irish backstop nor a time limit; however, the European Union did specify that the backstop was not meant to be permanent and did give Britain what appeared to be quite an amount of leeway to walk away if the EU did not do enough to put in place a full trade deal.
Against that backdrop, outside of Sterling financial markets were relatively becalmed.
Commenting on early trading, David Madden at CMC Marktes UK said: "Stock markets in Europe are subdued this morning as Brexit remains in focus.
"Concerns about the slowdown in the global economy have faded for now, and the positive finish in Asia overnight suggests traders are still optimistic about the state of US-China trade relations."
As of 1030 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was edging lower by 0.02% to 373.79, alongside a drop of 0.36% for the FTSE Mibtel to 20,623.48, while the German Dax was higher by 0.30% at 11,552.16.
Trading in Sterling however was quite active, amid large swings in the pound as traders reacted to the incoming news headlines.
Ahead of the expected announcement of the Attorney General's legal opinion regarding the EU's concessions, the pound was down by 0.15% against the euro a 1.1675, having risen as high as 1.1791 in overnight trades.
Against the US dollar meanwhile, Sterling was getting whacked, dropping 0.75% to 1.30611 following an intra-session high of 1.3290.
Brent crude oil futures were also moving higher, adding 0.95% to $67.22 a barrel on the ICE.
To take note of, also overnight, Chinese state-owned news agency, Xinhua, reported that the US Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer, and his opposite number in Beijing, had held a telephone call on Tuesday morning to plan for the next stage of work.
In economic news, Portuguese CPI data for January were set for release at 1100 GMT.
On the corporate front, shares of Credit Bank of Moscow were a smidgen higher after the lender, Russia's second-largest private bank, posted a 31.5% jump in full-year 2018 net profits to RUB27.2bn.