Europe midday: Stocks hold onto gains ahead of US jobs, oil data
European stocks were still higher come midday as investors looked to US jobs and oil inventory figures data due out later in the day.
As of 1145 BST the benchmark Stoxx 600 was 0.30% higher to 391.15, alongside gains of 0.34% for Germany's Dax to 12,658.57 and a rise of 0.47% in the Cac-40 to 5,308.14.
"Ahead of tomorrow’s jobs report, the ADP release will be the most closely watched, despite its tendency to not provide an accurate indication of the official NFP release. A number in line with expectations would suggest tomorrow’s number will be good enough to convince the Federal Reserve that a hike at the meeting in two weeks’ time is still a good decision," said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda.
Investors were also keeping tabs on the start of the EU-China summit, with both blocs expected to reiterate their support for the Paris climate agreement on the same day that it was feared that the White House would renege on the previous administration's support for it.
Markit´s euro area manufacturing sector purchasing managers' index for May increased from a print of 56.7 for April to 57.0 - its highest since April 2011 - just as expected.
Significantly, a gauge of new orders climbed to a more than six-year high, even as two subindices tracking cost pressures eased to multi-month lows.
"The increase in new orders, together with a rising backlog of works, suggests that manufacturing confidence should remain at healthy levels in the months ahead," said economists at Barclays Research.
In parallel, ISTAT announced that Italy's economy grew at a 1.2% pace year-on-year during the first quarter, beating forecasts for a rate of expansion of 0.8%.
Acting as a backdrop, overnight German central bank chief Jens Wiedmann sounded a 'hawkish' note on monetary policy, telling an audience that the recent strengthening of the euro area's economy made it more likely that recent higher inflation was not just a "flash in the pan".
The ADP jobs report in the States was scheduled for release at 1315 BST, followed by the ISM manufacturing sector PMI at 1500 BST.
Official weekly US oil inventory statistics were set to be published at 1530 BST.
In corporate news, the Stoxx 600 bank's sector index was down by 0.08% even as stock in Banco Popular´s crumbled another 15% amid media speculation that the troubled lender might not be able to find a buyer.
Meanwhile, Spain's Unicaja Banco announced its intention to float 40.4% of its capital.
Shares in Akzo Nobel dipped after rival US paint giant PPG Industries dropped a $27.6bn takeover offer.
Fincatieri was also in the news after French president Emmanuel Macron said he wanted to review the terms of the sale agreement of the STX France shipyard to the Italian group.