Europe midday: Construction stocks higher for second day on Trump hopes

European stocks were holding slightly higher ahead of an eagerly awaited speech from US president Donald Trump later in the day and as inspectors from Greece's lenders headed back towards Athens.

Ahead of his speech, scheduled for after the close of trading on Wall Street, Trump told Fox News that stronger US economic growth - of 3.0% or more - could pay for his stimulus measures.

"I think the money is going to come from a revved up economy [...] I mean you look at the kind of numbers we're doing, we were probably GDP of a little more than 1% and if I can get that up to 3% or maybe more, we have a whole different ball game."

As of 1145 GMT the benchmark Stoxx 600 was edging higher by 0.05% to 369.72, as Germany's Dax drifted 0.13% lower to 11,807.37 and the FTSE Mibtel tacked on another 0.40% to 18,989.46.

In parallel, front month Brent crude oil futures were off by 0.23% at $55.80 a barrel on the ICE, while the euro/dollar was edging higher by 0.09% to 1.0598.

The Stoxx 600 gauge of Basic Resources companies was at the bottom of the pile, down 1.14% or 4.94% at 426.53. A sub-index of construction stocks was up for a second day running, gaining 0.37% to 440.71 on hopes for a boost to US infrastructure spending.

Fed funds futures were pricing-in 50.0% odds of a Fed rate hike at the 14 to 15 March policy meeting.

"We think the market is getting rather tired of the US administration’s flamboyant rhetoric and needs considerable clarity, especially on fiscal plans," analysts at UniCredit said.

"This can be seen not only in the year-to-date losses of the dollar but also in stalling US nominal yields and the underperformance of US equities versus EM peers. The latter is particularly important because there is a case to be made that the rally in world equities is related more to the upswing in global growth than simply being 'Trump-induced'."

Acting as a backdrop, Greece's finance ministry said inspectors from the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank would meet with officials in Athens to discuss energy reforms, fiscal issues and privatisations.

In other news, the latest French voter poll from Opinionway put support for independent centrist presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron in a run-off vote at 61.0%, versus the 39.0% which were expected to show their backing for Marine Le Pen.

Support for Macron was down from 62.0% on Monday and before an expected annuncement of his economic policy proposals on 2 March.

Also in France, the cost of living dipped from a 1.3% year-on-year pace in January to a 1.2% clip for February, missing forecasts for an advance of 1.5% by a wide margin.

On the economic calendar for later on Tuesday, US fourth quarter GDP figures were set for release at 1330 GMT, followed by the Chicago purchasing managers' index for February.

Investors were also waiting on speeches from two Fed speakers, the presidents of the regional Fed banks of San Francisco and St.Louis, after the close of trading in London.

In corporate news, Volkswagen's supervisory board decided to cut executives' pensions to just 40.0% of their base salary, down from 50.0%, German daily Bild reported.

Pan-European aerospace giant Airbus appointed a new head for its problem-prone A400M military cargo aircraft.

Shares in Seadrill were sharply lower after warning of difficulties in restructuring its debt pile.