Europe midday: Stocks just off best levels going into ECB press conference

As of 12:30 BST, the Stoxx 600 was edging 0.11% higher or by 0.43 points to 385.98, alongside gains of 0.51% or 63.22 points to 12,514.80 for the German Dax and a 0.25% or 12.90 point rise in the Cac-40 to 5,229.00.

In parallel, euro/dollar was drifting lower by 0.25% to 1.1485 and front month Brent crude futures were up by 0.42% to $49.91 a barrel on the ICE.

As expected, the ECB kept all its main policy rates unchanged, with that on the main refinancing facility steady at 0.0%, as well as its guidance for its asset purchase programme.

The ECB's Governing Council members had not been expected to decide on any change in policy or guidance. However, traders were keen to see if chief Mario Draghi would push back on recent speculation of further imminent tweaks to the central bank's guidance for quantitative easing, or not.

Complicating matters, that speculation, alongside the US administration's inability to approve further fiscal stimulus measures had contributed to a large run-up in the value of the single currency.

Commenting on the situation in markets, Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK said: "ECB officials aren't being helped in by political events playing out in the US which is undermining the US dollar, and means that the ECB’s task in managing monetary policy is akin to playing a game of monetary Jenga with bond yields, which if they rise too quickly along with the euro could start to hurt the weaker parts of the European recovery story."

In the background, according to Bank of America-Merrill Lynch's July Fund Manager Survey, the proportion of investors who believed global monetary policy was "too stimulative" increased in July to a net 48%, the highest level since April 2011.

The same survey showed that 28% of investors saw a 'crash' in global bond markets as the biggest risk, just ahead of the 27% who believed the most significant danger was a 'policy mistake' by the US Federal Reserve or the ECB.

In economic news, the euro area's current account surplus rose sharply in May to reach €30.1bn, versus a revised reading of €23.5bn for the previous month, as the deficit on the secondary income balance shrank from €18.6bn to €10.7bn.

Factory gate prices in the Eurozone's largest economy, Germany declined from a 2.8% year-on-year clip in May to 2.4% for June (consensus: 2.3%).

On the corporate front, German software giant SAP said second quarter revenues jumped 10.4% to €5.78bn (consensus: €5.71bn).

French spirits maker Remy Cointreau reported accelerating sales during the first quarter, which came in ahead of forecasts.

Semiconductor-maker Soitec posted a 22% increase in revenues during its first quarter.