Europe open: Stocks tick lower ahead of May's Brexit speech

European stocks ticked lower in early trade as investors awaited a speech by UK Prime Minister Theresa May, in which she is expected to outline the government’s plans for Brexit.

At 0850 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 index was down 0.6%, while Germany’s DAX and France’s CA 40 were off 0.7%. Meanwhile, oil prices were little changed, with West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude down 0.2% to $52.52 and $55.77 a barrel, respectively.

Markus Huber, a trader at City of London Markets, said: “Whilst traders are eagerly awaiting her speech due to multiple leaks over the past few days it might very well be that most of what the speech will contain is already well known in advance and therefore its impact on stocks and the pound should limited."

In corporate news, aerospace and defence group Rolls-Royce advanced after agreeing to pay £671m to settle bribery and corruption cases with UK and US authorities.

British American Tobacco edged higher after confirming it was acquiring the remaining 57.8% of Reynolds American it does not already own in an agreed cash-and-shares offer worth $49.4bn.

Beiersdorf nudged up after better-than-expected 2016 sales figures, while Greggs shares were looking pretty tasty after the FTSE 250 baker said full-year results are likely to be slightly ahead of previous expectations following particularly strong sales over the Christmas period.

Standard Chartered rallied on the back of an upgrade to ‘buy’ by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

On the downside, German online retailer Zalando slumped despite reporting a rise in revenue and earnings for the fourth quarter.

French retailer Casino was weaker despite saying 2016 trading profit came in a touch ahead of its €500m target.

French train maker Alstom declined as it reported a 3.1% increase in sales for the three months through to December, which marked a slowdown from the previous six months.

Mining giant Rio Tinto was in the red after saying it experienced a “strong” operational performance in 2016 with increases in iron ore, bauxite and aluminium production in the fourth quarter.

The German ZEW survey is at 1000 GMT and May’s speech is reported to be at 1145 GMT.