Europe open: Stocks mixed ahead of Fed's Powell, Spanish issues lower
Stocks on the Continent have started the morning on a mixed note as investors wait for a key speech from the head of the US central bank later in the day.
At 1500 BST, Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell will deliver his semiannual monetary policy report to Congress and investors are keen for further details around the possible extent of any policy easing.
But as David Madden at CMC Markets UK said: "There is a sense that some investors got ahead of themselves when it come Fed predictions."
For his part, some analysts, such as Pantheon Macroeconomics's Ian Shepherdson was at pains on Tuesday evening to stress how some measures of core inflation in the US - such as the Dallas Fed's trimmed mean PCE measure - were in fact pointing clearly higher, not least due to the ongoing trade tariff war.
In the background, overnight it as reported that the Presidents of the US and China had held their first telephone conversation since the G20 leaders's summit at the end of June, although no details were forthcoming yet.
As of 0828 BST, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was down by 0.22% to 387.05, alongside a drop of 0.25% to 12,404.14 for the German Dax, although the FTSE Mibtel was ahead by 0.46% at 21,987.11.
Meanwhile, front month Brent crude oil futures were rising by 1.23% to $64.96 a barrel on the ICE and euro/dollar was adding 0.06% to 1.12154.
There were some positive surprises on the economic front.
According to INSEE, French industrial output expanded at a clip of 2.1% month-on-month, far exceeding the 0.3% rise expected by economists.
Spanish issues with exposure to Mexico, including BBVA, Iberdrola and Telefonica came under early selling pressure following the shock resignation of the country's finance minister.
Germany's Leoni was a tad lower despite a Reuters report that it was exploring a sale or flotation of its wire and cables unit.