Europe midday: Stocks holding lower ahead of BoE decision

Stocks were holding lower as investors waited on the Bank of England's latest interest rate announcement.

In particular, investors were keen to see if policymakers validated recent market pricing for a terminal rate nearer 6%.

Commenting on the BoE's likely decision, Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Finalto, said: "It was not so long ago we were talking about the BoE being close to the finish line – a couple of hot CPI prints over the summer are a fly in the ointment but the Bank has never been one to overreact. Maybe it changes its spots today? Maybe."

As of 1128 BST, the Stoxx 600 was dropping by 0.86% to 453.07, alongside a 0.61% decline on the German Dax to 15,925.37 while Italy's FTSE Mib was declining by 1.03% to 27,325.50.

Front-dated Brent crude oil futures meanwhile were off by 1.4% at 75.20 and euro/dollar at 1.0999.

As an aside, in the background Bitcoin was tearing higher again, adding 4.44% to $30,204.81 and approaching its 52-week highs.

In other central bank news, Norway's central bank surprised with a 50 basis point hike to 3.75% and said it anticipated another hike in August.

The Swiss National Bank went ahead and hiked interest rates by 25 bp to 1.75%, as expected.

INSEE's French factory confidence index jumped by two points in June to hit 101, against expectations for a dip to 98.

On the company front, SES shares were rising 5% after calling off talks with Intelsat to form a satellite giant.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Deutsche Bank chief executive officer, Christian Sweing, said that trading revenues should recover in the back half of 2023.

Volkswagen shares were down 2% on its Capital Markets Day, which brought no surprises but added confidence, analysts at Warburg said, Dow Jones Newswires reported.

The carmaker said it would target a 2027 proft margin of 8-10%, outlined plans to scale technology for the battery-electric vehicle transition and said it would further localise its supply chain in China.