Europe close: Stocks tread water, ECB, Fed in focus

European indices finished the session on a mixed note despite, or perhaps on account of, dovish remarks from two top European Central Bank officials.

Acting as a backdrop, news that ratings agency Moody's had downgraded its rating on China's sovereign debt - the first such move since 1989 - sent shares in Basic Resource companies lower at the start of trading, but by the closing bell they had recovered.

However, the ratings agency lifted the outlook on its ratings from negative to stable.

The benchmark Stoxx 600 edged higher by 0.09% to 392.37, but the Dax ended the day lower by 0.13% to 12,642.87 even as the Cac-40 slipped 0.13% to 5,341.34.

Investors were also waiting on the minutes of the US central bank's most recent policy meeting due out later in the evening.

By sectors, the Stoxx 600's subindex of Travel&Leisure companies did best on Wednesday, advancing by 0.81% to 263.41, even as a sector gauge for Autos&Parts skidded to the bottom of the leaderboard, dropping 0.76% to end at 561.86.

Speaking in Madrid, ECB chief Mario Draghi may have (to an extent) dashed some investors' hopes that the Governing Council might subtly change its policy bias at its next meeting, in June, which would help many euro area lenders' margins.

In Draghi's opinion, there were no financial stability risks in the currency bloc.

That meant there was no reason to "deviate from the indications we have been consistently providing in the introductory statement to our press conferences."

Earlier in the day, ECB chief economist, Peter Praet, indicated policymakers need to be more confident that inflation was on a durable path towards the monetary authority's target of just below 2% before making any changes in their risk assessment.

That meant that a shift in the ECB's policy bias at its June meeting was unlikely, but there were others such as fellow Governing Council member Benoit Coeure who had recently argued for the need to begin moving to a less accomodative stance.

GfK's German consumer confidence index improved from a reading of 10.2 for May to 10.4 for June (consensus: 10.2).

Real global trade jumped by 1.5% month-on-month in March, pushing the year-on-year rate of gains to 5.6%, led primarily by exports from emerging markets which surged by nearly 10% on the year, according to the Dutch CPB bureau.

It was the strongest rise since April 2011.

"The latest data confirm that the recovery of the global economy has been well under way, especially in emerging markets. It also flags that yesterday’s strong business sentiment data for the Eurozone and Germany do not just reflect favorable psychological tailwinds such as the outcome of the French presidential election," UniCredit's Dr. Andreas Rees said.

On the calendar for later in the day, the minutes of the US central bank's last meeting were set for release at 19:00 BST.

Beforehand, at 14:00 BST, the FHFA was to publish its home price data for March, following existing home sales figures for April at 13:30 BST.

According to ex-French central bank chief Christian Noyer, almost two dozen lenders and asset management firms were talking to the country's regulators about shifting jobs to France after Brexit.

Shares in German real estate outfit Vonovia SE were lower despite the company having raises its full-year outlook.

On Tuesday, Moody's raised the outlook on Leonardo's long-term debt to 'positive' from 'stable'.