Europe midday: Stocks soft ahead of Fed minutes

As of 1236 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was trading 0.45% or 1.72 points lower at 378.80, alongside a dip of 0.33% or 17.26 points to 5,272.60 on the Cac-40 and a retreat of 0.47% or 107.68 points to 22,564.52 on the FSTE Mibtel.

"Markets are under pressure once again, as nervousness persists ahead of the release of Fed minutes. This might seem a little odd, given that we have had wage data, CPI numbers and will get PMI figures before the release of the minutes, but investors will be keen to rake over the committee’s deliberations to see if the bank remains as committed to its hiking policy this time around. Fed chairman Powell will make his first public appearance next week so this likely to be the bigger influencer of market movements," said Chris Beauchamp at IG.

To take note of, according to Handelsblatt, German officials hope that their support for Spanish finance minister Luis de Guindos to take up the vice-presidency at the European Central bank sets the stage for the Bundesbank's Jens Weidmann to become president when Mario Draghi's tenure expires.

Against that backdrop, the yield on the benchmark 10-year German bund was down by three basis points at 0.71% while euro/dollar was down 0.15% to 1.2320.

Markets were also digesting the latest set of euro area purchasing managers' indices.

In Germany, IHS Markit's composite output index for the country's manufacturing and services sector slipped from a reading of 59.0 for January to 57.4 in February (consensus: 58.0) - a three month low.

It was a similar story in France, with the equivalent gauge retreating from 59.6 last month to 57.8 (consensus: 59.2).

Commenting on the German data, Claus Vistesen at Pantheon Macroeconomics highlighted how new orders subindices for both the factory and services sectors "fell noticeably compared to the brisk pace seen in the previous month", albeit adding that both remained "strong".

"Momentum in new export orders, for example, dipped to a 12-month low, indicating a 10% year-on-year appreciation of the euro is curbing external demand, at the margin," Vistesen said.

Later in the day, investors were keen to see if the latest set of Fed minutes would validate expectations for a faster pace of policy tightening in the wake of the approval of the White House's tax cut plans.

Ahead of the minutes, the yield on the benchmark two-year US Treasury note was extending the previous day's rise by four basis points to 2.26%.

Over in the corporate space, Volkswagen was in the headlines after reaching an agreement with the IG Metall union.

Deutsche Boerse was also in the spotlight after posting a 26% jump in net profits for the three months to December.