Europe midday: Stocks edge higher in choppy trading

European markets were moving slightly higher in choppy trading amid thin trading volumes on account of a bank holiday in Germany and as investors digested the US central bank policy meeting minutes released overnight.

At 1148 BST the Stoxx 600 was up by 0.10% to 392.76, alongside gains of 0.14% for Germany's Dax to 12,660.19 and an advance of 0.26% in the Cac-40 to 5,354.76.

Overnight, the S&P 500 closed at a new record high, on an end of day basis, after what some traders and analysts - but certainly not all - appeared to interpret as a slightly 'dovish' set of US central bank policy meeting minutes.

"Consensus is that the Fed will hike at the June meeting, but we are still more sceptical because of both the weaker economic data and still too low inflation. However, we just expect the Fed to wait until July so would not be a big surprise if the Fed hikes in June.

"We now expect the Fed to hike three times next year (previously 3-4 times) due to a combination of the Fed's desire to shrink its balance sheet soon and Trump's inability to deliver on Trumponomics," said analysts at Danske Bank.

Acting as a backdrop, according to reports OPEC energy ministers meeting in Vienna on Thursday agreed to extend their oil output agreement for another nine months, as hoped for.

Despite the news, the immediate reaction in West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures was a 1.64% drop to $50.52 a barrel.

In economic news, British GDP surprised to the downside, expanding at a 0.2% quarter-on-quarter clip as higher inflation took its toll on consumers.

Commenting on Thursday's figures, analysts at Barclays Research said: "To make matters worse, lower GDP and a stronger labour market mean labour productivity was weak yet again in Q1, which together with a slowdown in net migration may worsen the growth inflation policy tradeoff of the BoE. All things considered, we remain of the view that the BoE is likely to maintain the status quo over our forecast horizon."

Spanish GDP grew at a 0.8% quarter-on-quarter pace during the first three months of 2017, as expected.

New industrial orders in Italy rose by 7.2% year-on-year in calendar adjusted terms in March, following an increase of 7.8% in the month before.

Still on the economic calendar for Thursday, European Central Bank vice president Vitor Constancio was scheduled to deliver a speech at 1800 BST.

Stateside, data on weekly jobless claims, trade in goods and wholesale inventories were all scheduled for release at 1330 BST.

Shares in online fashion retailer Zalando were little changed even after the company said that Global Founders GmbH had reduced its stake by 3.78%.

Private equity outfits Advent and Permira were not studying a joint counter-offer for Germany's Stada alongside Shanghai Pharmaceuticals, Reuters reported.