Europe midday: Stocks little changed following US bank earnings
Stocks across the Continent were trading in mixed fashion following the latest quarterly updates from US banking giants Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.
Nevertheless, futures tracking the US S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 were both pointing towards fresh record highs at the start of trading in New York.
As Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK put it: "It's been a slow start to the week for European stocks with little in the way of volume or direction, and it looks set to be a similar pattern today."
As of 1413 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was edging up 0.06% to 436.01, alongside a 0.19% gain for the Cac-40 to 6,195.91, while the Dax was dipping 0.25% to 15,196.98.
Dampening risk appetite a bit, US lender JP Morgan soundly beat analysts' revenue forecasts for the first quarter, despite which its shares were being pushed lower in preopen trading.
Rival Goldman Sachs's shares on the other hand were being bid higher following its own quarterly update.
In the background, investors were waiting for European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde, who was due to appear at a Reuters Newsmaker event, starting form 1500 GMT.
At the sector level, technology issues were faring best within the Stoxx 600, with the corresponding sector sub-index climbing 1.22% and with shares of software maker SAP among the top performers on Wednesday in that space.
Going the other way, the Stoxx 600 Telecommunications gauge was down 0.30%, with stock in Telefonica Deutschland at the bottom of the pile.
Tesco was another top faller following the release of its latest full-year numbers.