Europe midday: Stocks waver as investors mull Draghi, Weidmann comments

European stocks wavered on Friday as investors digested weaker-than-expected German data, while a dovish speech from European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi failed to lift sentiment.

At midday, the benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 index was flat, France’s CAC 40 was down 0.3% and Germany’s DAX was up 0.1%.

ECB chief Mario Draghi said in a speech in Frankfurt that the central bank was ready to act to boost inflation and that it would review policy at the December meeting.

"If we decide that the current trajectory of our policy is not sufficient to achieve our objective, we will do what we must to raise inflation as quickly as possible," Draghi said.

"We consider the asset purchase programme to be a powerful and flexible instrument, as it can be adjusted in terms of size, composition or duration to achieve a more expansionary stance."

The euro fell following Draghi’s comments. It was down 0.5% against the greenback, 0.3% against the pound and 0.6% against the yen.

“The fact that we’ve seen no reaction to the comments in the equity markets and even some bond yields are higher on the day suggests investors are no wiser on the kind of stimulus the ECB will offer than they were before,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda.

“However the euro did slide in response to the comments so clearly whatever approach they take is expected to be bold.”

Also on Friday, Jens Weidmann – the head of the Bundesbank and a governing council member of the European Central Bank – warned that the longer we go with ultra-loose monetary policy, the greater the risks.

He said the central bank’s existing monetary measures still need time to filter through.

“I see no reason to talk down the economic outlook and paint a gloomy picture,” he told a conference attended by European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi.

"We should also not forget that the monetary policy measures already taken still need time to fully feed into the economy," he added.

Data released by Destatis showed German producer prices fell 2.3% in October from last year, marking the biggest drop since February 2010 and weaker than the 2% decline economists had been expecting.

On the corporate front, Imperial Tobacco rallied in London amid reports that British American Tobacco has put together a syndicate of banks to finance a possible purchase of its rival.

Elsewhere, Switzerland’s OC Oerlikon surged after after Sweden's Atlas Copco said it would buy its vacuum business for an enterprise value of €486m.

The macroeconomic calendar is pretty light, with Eurozone consumer confidence the highlight at 1500 GMT.