Europe open: Stocks pare early gains, Deutsche Bank finds a bid

Chinese officials had initially kept mum, prompting some analysts to wonder aloud if the Asian giant might be doing so on purpose, in order to signal some restraint.

That line of reasoning was soon cut short by the foreign ministry in Beijing, with spokesman Lu Kang announcing shortly after the London open that countermeasures had gone into effect after the American measures had come into force.

In reaction, some of the sectors which had recently been performing best, such as Autos&Parts and Banks fell back, with some of the more defensive areas of the market such as personal household goods taking the lead.

As of 0855 BST, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was still higher by 0.19% or 0.73 points to 382.23, while the German Dax was off by 0.02% or 3.44 points to 12,460.20.

The Cac-40 on the other hand was holding onto gains of 0.26% or 13.88 points to 5,380.20.

Euro/dollar meanwhile was little changed, edging up by 0.15% to 1.17089.

Earlier, China's commerce ministry had issued a statement, saying: "The United States has violated World Trade Organization rules and ignited the largest trade war in economic history.

"Such tariffs are typical trade bullying, and this action threatens global supply chains and value chains, stalls the global economic recovery, triggers global market turmoil, and will hurt more innocent multinational companies, enterprises and consumers."

However, the Commerce ministry did not specify what amount of goods would be hit by Beijing's tariffs.

In the background, Wall Street clocked in with strong gains overnight after the latest set of US central bank meeting minutes left the impression with traders that the Federal Reserve was not yet contemplating upping the ante on the pace of rate hikes.

Weighing in on the Fed's decision, Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon Macroeconomics, who is typically on the more hawkish side of the spectrum of analysts' opinions, broadly agreed with that view.

"Overall, though, these minutes don't give the impression that a clear majority is ready now to abandon the idea that the risk are "roughly balanced" or that "gradual" rate hikes are no longer enough.

"That day is coming, but likely not until December, by which time we think unemployment will be 3.5% or less, wage growth will have picked up appreciably, and, we hope, trade policy will be more rational."

As expected, German industrial production bounded ahead in May, the Federal Office of Statistics said, increasing at a month-on-month clip of 2.6%, dwarfing estimates for a rise of 0.3%.

However, French data released soon afterwards revealed the country's trade deficit widened from the -€5.2bn seen in April to -€6.0bn for May (consensus: -€5.2bn). Exports were especially weak, falling by 2.0% pace versus the prior month.

On the corporate front, there are reports that JP Morgan and ICBC may be weighing taking a stake in Deutsche Bank.