Europe midday: Stocks climb off lows as ECB pulls all its levers

Stocks across the Continent are climbing off their session lows after the European Central Bank moved quickly to get ahead of market expectations.

In theory, central banks should not surprise markets, unless they have high credibility.

Making the most of his, ECB chief Mario Draghi on Thursday unveiling both a new round of fresh loans for the bloc's lenders and pushed back on its so-called "forward guidance".

Despite that, some economists were skeptical, with Andrew Kenningham at Capital Economics telling clients: "This is as much as could have been expected from the ECB at this stage and suggests that it will slash its GDP growth and inflation forecasts, which will be revealed [at 1330 GMT].

"We doubt, however, that the new measures will be enough to reverse the economic slowdown."

As of 1305 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was down by 0.05% at 375.28, alongside a drop of 0.09% for the German Dax to 11,577.38.

But the Cac-40 had perked up and was ahead by 0.12% to 5,295.32.

Euro/dollar meanwhile was down by 0.41% at 1.12644, while front month Brent crude oil was up by 1.21% to $66.80 a barrel on the ICE.

Elsewhere on the economic front, there was a fair bit of 'market chatter' around the spat between Rome and Washington surrounding the former's stated intent on signing a memorandum of understanding with Beijing supporting its Belt and Road initiative during a visit to the country by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

In other news, Eurostat confirmed that euro area GDP grew at a 0.2% quarter-on-quarter pace over the last three months of 2018, as expected, and up from the just 0.1% clip observed over the prior three months with employment in the single currency bloc up by 0.3% over that same time frame.

Some economists greeted the GDP data, calling attention to the strength in exports and still strong investment.

Shares of Hugo Boss meanwhile were trading down by 4% after the iconic fashion retailer delivered a smaller than expected dividend payout.

German auto parts maker Continental was also moving lower, despite posting better-than-expected full-year earnings before interest and taxes of €4.03bn, after the company said business year-to-date had been slow.

Grifols purchased a minority 26% stake in Shanghai RAAS Blood Products in a non-cash deal, in exchange for the latter becoming its exclusive distributor in the country and with the Spanish firm agreeing to provide technology and know-how in exchange for fees.

The Barcelona-based business will also give RAAS a 45% stake in its US subsidiary, which was valued at $1.9bn.