Europe midday: Oil shares slip towards seven-month low

European markets were holding lower, with investors pushing Oil&Gas shares to near seven-month lows, albeit against a backdrop of positive economic data and heavy news-flow news regarding continued deal-making in the corporate space.

By midday, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was drifting lower 0.25% or 0.99 points at 387.51, with Germany's Dax approximately flat at 12,774.63 alongside a retreat of 0.31% or 16.54 points to 5,258.15 for the Cac-40.

In parallel, front month Brent futures were up by 0.79% to $45.18 a barrel on the ICE following a sharp fall the day before. Some City-based traders referenced downbeat remarks from OPEC producers regarding the possibility of further output cuts as the reason behind the weakness in oil.

Analysts for their part continued to mark down their short-term price forecasts for Brent, with those at Barclays becoming the latest to cut their projections for prices in 2018, from $67 a barrel to $57. The broker attributed that to expectations for US shale oil output to continue rising next year even as OPEC removed its production curbs.

Barclays did keep its 2019 price assumption at $60 a barrel but nevertheless downgraded its recommendation on the European Oil & Gas space from 'neutral' to 'negative'.

"The fundamental outlook for the sector has become increasingly challenged with several companies struggling to present a compelling medium term growth outlook that has the potential to decouple stock price performance from moves in near-term oil prices," Barclays told clients.

Sentiment among French manufacturers slipped from a reading of 109.0 in May to 108.0 for June (consensus: 109.0). However, the headline general business sentiment index picked up from a reading of 104.0 for May to 106.0 in June (consensus: 105.0).

"Overall, the business sentiment surveys point to a solid, and even strengthening, cyclical upturn in the French economy," said Pantheon Macroeconomics's chief Eurozone economist, Claus Vistesen.

Acting as a backdrop, in an interview with the FT US Philly Fed chief Patrick Harker reportedly said it would be "prudent" for the Federal Reserve to "pause" on an interest rate hike when it next met in September, deferring it to December. However, he advocated starting to wind down the US central bank's balance sheet in September.

Still on the economic calendar for Thursday, the European Central Bank was set to publish its monthly economic bulletin at 0900 BST, with a preliminary reading on euro area consumer confidence from Eurostat due at 1400 BST.

The latest US initial weekly jobless claims figures were set for release at 1330 BST, followed by the latest FHFA house price data at 1400 BST and the Conference Board's index of leading economic indicators at 1500 BST.

Federal Reserve governor Jerome Powell was also scheduled to testify before the US Senate banking committee at 1500 BST.

With the deadline for their take-over offer fast approaching, private equity groups Bain Capital and Cinven said shareholders in Germany's Stada had tendered just over 41% of their shares, 26 percentage points short of the minimum required.

Dutch cable operator Altice's US subsidiary raised $1.9bn via an initial public offering.

Bloomberg reported that France's Vinci was weighing up an offer for Paris airport operator ADP.

Stock in Britain's Imagination jumped after the tech outfit said it had received several offers from potential buyers.