Europe open: Stocks mixed as investors ponder latest trade headlines

Stocks in Europe are heading higher in early trading, overcoming the downward pull from the losses seen overnight on Wall Street after White House economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, denied media reports that a trade planning meeting between Chinese and US officials scheduled for the day before had been cancelled.

On Tuesday afternoon, CNBC and the FT reported that a meeting between trade officials from the two Pacific nations, to prepare for the next round of trade talks at the end of January, had been called-off, sending shares prices in the US sliding sharply lower.

Commenting on the garbled headlines around trade, Michael Hewson at CMC Markets UK said: "These conflicting reports still served to keep US markets under pressure given they had already been trending lower after playing catch-up, or catch down with markets in Europe, having missed out on the move lower due to being closed for Martin Luther King Day.

"As a result markets here in Europe are expected to open lower this morning as expectations about a quick détente on trade become slightly more realistic."

Against that backdrop, as of 1030 GMT the benchmark Stoxx 600 was edging up by 0.09% or 0.33 points to 355.42, alongside a rise of 0.26% or 12.5 points to 4,859.98 for the Cac-40, while the German Dax was down by 0.10% or 10.90 points at 11,079.57.

Also helping to boost sentiment was a 6% bounce in shares of IBM in 'after-hours' trading in New York after the US technology giant beat analysts' estimates for its fourth quarter earnings and revenues.

Going the other way however, Dutch chip equipment maker, ASML Holdings, was a drag on markets after it warned that first quarter sales might come in far below consensus projections.

On the economic front meanwhile, INSEE's French business climate indicator was unchanged in January from the month before at 103.0.

For later in the day, investors were waiting on the release of the European Commission's 'flash' euro area consumer confidence index for January.