Europe open: Stocks under slight selling pressure amid geopolitical tensions

Shares were under slight selling pressure at the start of the day, with central banks still in focus even as traders kept a wary eye on events in Qatar and on the North Korean peninsula.

As of 0924 BST, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was 0.03% or 0.11 points lower to 382.22 with the German Dax drifting down by 0.06% or 7.83 points to 12,429.70.

Paris's Cac-40 on the other hand was up by 0.19% or 9.94 points to 5,183.43

Investors were waiting on the the release of the minutes of the US central bank's last policy meeting later in the day, which traders hoped might provide clues regarding the likelihood of further monetary tightening in 2017.

Ahead of those, in an interview with The Guardian the Monetary Policy Committee's Michael Saunders said that "households should prepapre for interest rates to go higher at some point."

That continued a string of more hawkish commentary from central bankers around the world over recent weeks which had been weighed on share prices.

In the background, ratings agency Moody's downgraded its outlook on Qatar's debt from 'stable' to 'negative', warning of the impact that the diplomatic spat with its neighbours might have on its economy.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council was due to hold an emergency meeting later on Wednesday to discuss North Korea's firing of a ballistic missile the day before.

On the economic front, IHS Markit's services sector purchasing managers' index revealed that activity held up better than expected in June.

The survey compiler's services PMI was revised up to 55.4 points for last month after a reading of 56.3 in may (consensus: 54.7).

Similarly, a so-called composite PMI, which combines results from surveys of manufacturing and services, slipped from a reading of 53.8 for June to 56.3 in May (consensus: 55.7).

Still on the economic calendar for Wednesday, revised US durable goods orders data for May was scheduled for release at 1500 BST, followed by the minutes of the Fed's last policy meeting at 1900 BST.

Utilities were among the worst performing sectors, with downgrades from HSBC and Deutsche Bank weighing on shares of EdF and Enagas, respectively.

Share price gains in the former, HSBC said, had run too far.

The German broker meanwhile downgraded the Spanish gas group from 'buy' to 'hold'.