Europe midday: Shares struggle for direction ahead of big US earnings

European stocks were struggling to move the needle on Tuesday with a fall in UBS shares tempering sentiment and offsetting a rise in commodity stocks.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was flat, with the UK’s mining-heavy FTSE 100 outperforming, gaining 0.46% as prices of crude, base metals and iron ore rose. European Union countries were also gearing up to approve emergency proposals to curb their gas usage after Russia's Gazprom warned on Monday that it would reduce flows further this week due to another maintenance issue.

“It is a mixed session so far in Europe with the CAC under pressure while the FTSE MIB is trading in the green,” said Interactive Investor head of investment Victoria Scholar.

“Earnings are very much front and centre with US results from Alphabet and Microsoft after the bell this evening. The US retail giant and bellwether Walmart issued a profit warning last night sending shares down 10% along with Amazon and Target after-hours.”

“A slew of European earnings comes out this week and according to Goldman Sachs, around 34% of European companies have missed consensus by at least 5% in the second quarter so far, the highest percentage since the sovereign debt crisis in 2010.”

Unilever rose after the consumer goods giant it raised its full-year sales forecast.

Shares in Swiss chocolate maker Lindt & Spruengli rose after an upbeat outlook. Swiss bank UBS fell after posting a smaller-than-expected rise in second-quarter net profit.

Budget airline easyJet flew higher as it narrowed losses and despite taking a £133m hit from the travel chaos that has led to hundreds of flight cancellations due to staff shortages.

Oil producers Orron Energy and Equinor both gained on a higher oil price.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti at Sharecast.com