Europe open: Stocks slip ahead of Washington's response to Chinese moves in HK

Stocks were trading on the back foot at the end of the week as financial markets girded themselves for a press conference, scheduled for later in the evening, with the US President.

Donald Trump was expected to outline Washington's response to China's decision to clampdown on freedoms in Hong Kong by moving ahead with a national security law for the Chinese special administrative region.

"Today’s press conference could well up the ante further, if President Trump signs off on that bill as well as implementing further measures that might hint that the US is keen to send the Chinese a message," said CMC Markets UK's chief market analyst, Michael Hewson.

As of 1030 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was down 1.14% to 351.4, alongside a 1.52% drop for the German Dax to 1.52% at 11,600.62 while the FTSE Mibtel was sliding 0.68% to 18,226.57.

In parallel, euro/dollar was climbing 0.46% to 1.1128 and the yield on the benchmark 10-year German bund was drifting two basis points lower to -0.43%.

Front month Brent crude oil was also under slight selling pressure, giving back 2.61% to $34.37 a barrel on ICE.

In economic news, all eyes were on the latest euro area consumer price figures, with Eurostat reporting a dip in the year-on-year rate of headline inflation from 0.3% for April to 0.1% in May, as expected.

That was only marginally better than a deflationary reading; however, core CPI held up better than expected and was unchanged from April's pace of 0.9% on an annual basis.

On a more positive note, the rate of growth in euro area money supply picked up from a 7.5% pace for March to 8.3% in April (consensus: 8.2%).

And in Germany, the ministry of finance reported a much better than feared 5.3% on the month decline in retail sales (consensus: -12%), although in France household consumption data revealed a 20.2% fall (consensus: -14.7%).