Europe open: Stocks slip as investors mull next central bank moves

Stocks on the Continent were mostly under water in early trading, as investors pondered the potential for further interest rate hikes, both in the euro area and in the States.

The main market indices were also tracking declines in US equity futures and weakness overnight in Asian bourses.

Against that backdrop, as of 1014 BST the pan-European Stoxx 600 was off by 0.43% to 460.06 and Germany's Dax by 0.77% to 16,077.45.

Spain's Ibex 35 was the main exception, edging up 0.1% to 9,441.50.

Multiple top officials from the European Central Bank were scheduled to deliver speeches during the session.

They would be followed later by the presidents of the New York and St.Louis Federal Reserve banks were scheduled to deliver remarks.

The day before, ECB governing council member, Isabel Schnabel, had termed the path towards sustained price stability as uncertain and fraught with risks.

ECB chief economist, Philip Lane, meanwhile had told an audience in Madrid that a further hike in July was likely but that it remained to soon to predict the outcome of September's meeting.

Elsewhere on the economic front, Destatis reported a 1.4% month-on-month decline in German producer prices in May so that the annual rate of increase ebbed from April's 4.1% to 1.0%.

The euro area's current account surplus shrank in April to €4.0bn, against €31bn during the month before.

On a trailing 12-month basis, the current account slipped into a deficit of €55bn or 0.4% of the single currency bloc's GDP, against a surplus equal to 1.1% of GDP a year earlier.