Europe open: Stocks start lower as EU leaders mull multi-speed bloc

European stocks began the morning slightly lower, tracking the weak close to trading overnight on Wall Street.

As of 0829 GMT the benchmark Stoxx 600 was off by 0.07% to 373.02, as Germany's Dax gained 0.03% to 11,962.51 and the FTSE Mibtel rose 0.07% to 19,463.96, although London shares were marginally positive.

Weighing on shares at the start of trading were weak results from the likes of Aggreko and French grocer Casino Guichard.

Investors were also keeping close tabs on the political front, as the euro area's four largest economies had backed a 'multi-speed' Europe on the previous day, Reuters reported, as they prepared the next European Union summit in Rome on 25 March.

Also making headlines, Germany's Social Democrats edged past the Conservatives, according to the latest opinion poll from INSA published in Bild.

Martin Schulz's SPD garnered 31.5% of the vote against 30.5% for Chancellor Angela Markel's CDU.

German factory orders crashed 7.4% lower month-on-month in January, according to the Federal Office of Statistics, much worse than the forecasts for a decline of 2.5%.

"Overall, the crash in new orders is inconsistent with upbeat survey data, but we need to see more data and revisions to get a clearer picture. Our assumption remains that the German manufacturing sector is growing. It is also critical to smooth these data to get a sense of what is going on," said Claus Vistesen, chief Eurozone economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

The main culprit behind January's decline was a 9.9% month-on-month drop in orders for capital goods, led by a 16.3% crash in domestic orders.

Euro/dollar was little changed, up by 0.11% at 1.0592 while front month Brent crude futures were higher by 0.05% at $56.04 a barrel on the ICE.

Stock in Casino Guichard dropped 5% even after posting 2016 net profits of €2.679m, albeit thanks to the sale of its operations in Asia.

Shares in Stada were on the up on amid reports that two consortia of investors were studying bids which might value it at as much as €4.8bn.

Temporary power provider Aggreko slumped after reporting a 3% drop in full-year underlying earnings amid a gloomy outlook for 2017.