Europe midday: Selling in stocks abates ahead of US Fed decision
Investors appear to be holding their fire ahead of the US central bank's policy decision on Wednesday, although sentiment appeared to be downright cautious.
"Looking back at the history of equities in the wake of each hike since the end of 2015, the near-term picture is not pretty, with most increases followed by either sideways trading or a swift drop," said IG's Chris Beauchamp.
"Although last December’s rate hike was followed by the usual Santa rally, the cheery feeling was followed by January’s stomach-churning sell-off. Dip buyers might have a last hurrah in 2018, but beyond that the outlook is not encouraging."
As of noon, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was dipping 0.08% or 0.27 points to 343.01, alongside a 0.53% or 58.03 point rise to 10,830.13 for the German Dax and a gain of 0.32% or 57.82 points to 18,751.27 on the FTSE Mibtel.
To take note of, after falling by approximately 12% year-to-date, the Dow Jones Industrials was standing roughly 1.0% above its 2018 lows at 23,400.
Similarly, front month Brent crude oil futures were fast approaching their 200-week moving average at $56.48 a barrel on the ICE.
From a sector standpoint, Oil&Gas was leading to the downside, with the corresponding Stoxx 600 sector gauge retreating by 1.57% or 4.90 points to 306.36.
Possibly also weighing on shares of Royal Dutch Shell, Bloomberg reported that it was in talks to acquire Endeavour Energy Resources for roughly $8bn.
Stock in Deutsche Telekom meanwhile was flat, despite its T-Mobile unit having successfully passed two national security reviews in the States for its merger with Sprint.
On the economic side of things, the German IFO institute's business confidence gauge for December fell to a reading of 101.0, following a print of 102.0 for the month before (consensus: 101.6).
It was dragged down by a decline in the expectations sub-index from 98.7 to 97.3.