Europe midday: AstraZeneca, Deutsche Bank hold indices back

Europe's main equity gauges were slightly off balance due to large falls in shares of AstraZeneca and Deutsche Bank, even as the Greenback slipped to a close to two-year low.

Shares in AstraZeneca were getting thumped after disappointing results in the company's clinical trials for a lung cancer treatment, which saw nearly £11.0bn wiped off the drug maker's market capitalisation.

In parallel, shares in Deutsche Bank were coming off after Germany's largest lender said revenues dropped by 10% over the three months to June to €6.62bn (consensus: €7.1bn). Cost cuts and lower provision costs on the other hand helped to offset a sharp 16% drop in profits at Deutsche's investment banking unit, propping up the lender's bottom-line.

As of 1145 BST, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was up by 0.01% or 0.04 points at 382.78, alongside a drop of 0.47% to 12,247.47 in the German Dax.

Paris's Cac-40 on the other hand was ahead by 0.11% or 5.45 points to 5,195.58 and the FTSE Mibtel by another 0.21% to 21,623.15.

In parallel, the US dollar spot index was drifting lower by 0.08% to 93.60.

Overnight, traders had pushed US equities higher even as the Federal Reserve said in its post-meeting statement that it might begin to wind down its balance sheet "relatively soon", which some observers took as a sign that it may begin to do so in September, as opposed to later in the year.

For their part, economists at UniCredit Research told clients: "he prudent wording with regard to inflation left more of an impression among market participants than the clear indication that the balance sheet normalization is most likely to start in October (announcement expected at the FOMC meeting on 20 September, with debt ceiling negotiations probably the most important wild card).

"As we do not buy into the negative inflation sentiment but stay with our outlook of one more rate hike this year (followed by three hikes in 2018), we think the money market forwards are sending the wrong signal."

Figures on the rate of money supply growth in the Eurozone came in as expected, with M3 expanding at a 5.0% year-on-year pace in June, up from a 4.9% clip in the month before, according to the ECB.

Within that, credit growth to the private sector accelerated from 2.9% on the year in May to 3.1% for June.

The rate of unemployment in Spain fell back from 18.75% during the first quarter of the year to 17.22% over the three months to June, the country's statistics office INE said.

Consumer spirits in Germany were more buoyant, with market researcher GfK predicting that its consumer confidence index would rise to 10.8% in August after a reading of 10.6% for July (consensus: 10.6)

Still on the economic calendar for Thursday, US weekly jobless claims were set for release at 1330 BST, alongside June data on durable goods orders and international trade.

US Federal Reserve nominee Randal Quarles was set to testify before the US Senate's banking committee at 1600 BST.

In another news on the corporate front, Anheuser-Busch InBev posted a 11.8% jump in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation to reach $5.35bn - which was ahead of forecasts - as it continued to reap cost savings from its purchase of rival SAB Miller.

Meanwhile, French luxury goods group LVMH warned that economic uncertainty might weigh on its performance in the backhalf of 2017.

Insurer Allianz guided towards full-year operating profits towards the upper end of its forecast range.

Deutsche Boerse said its first half performance would be slightly underwhelming, with management anticipating full-year profits would come in at the lower-end of previous guidance.