Europe open: Fed speakers, oil futures in focus
Stocks on the Continent staged a bounce in early trading, recouping the previous day's losses as investors focused on the speeches from US central bank officials and modest gains in crude oil futures.
As of 0850 GMT the benchmark Stoxx 600 was higher by 0.39% at 376.47, as the German Dax was putting on 0.55% to 12,062.12 and the FTSE Mibtel advanced 0.44% to 20,219.08.
In parallel, front month Brent crude oil futures were 0.49% higher to $51.00 a barrel after Iran pledged nominal support for an extension of OPEC's output cut deal past June. Euro/dollar was off 0.08% at 1.0857.
Speaking overnight, the presidents of the Federal Reserve banks of Dallas and Chicago made relative 'dovish' remarks.
For his part, Robert Kaplan, the chief of the former, reportedly said he would continue to support further tightening policy as long as the US economy continued to make progress.
That saw the implied odds of a June Fed rate hike dip to 50%, according to Fed funds futures.
Hence, at least for the very short-term traders' bias appeared to be slightly more cautious now.
"While a lot of the focus is inevitably being focussed on the extent of last week’s declines and yesterday’s losses, the fact remains that US markets still remain up around 10% from when President Trump won the keys to the White House. Whether these declines continue is likely to be down to whether the Republicans decide to put some of their differences to one side and make an attempt to try and make some good policy," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.
For their part, strategists at Credit Suisse reiterated their benchmark view on 'Defensives', following an upgrade in February.
Telecoms and Pharma continued to be their preferred sectors, telling clients they remained cautious towards non-financial cyclicals.
"We continue to prefer to play cyclicality through financials and technology, and the cyclical regions such as Continental Europe and GEM," they added.
On the economic front, Italian industrial orders shrank 2.9% month-on-month in January, giving up the prior month's gains.
The economic calendar was rather light on Tuesday, although markets were expectant ahead of a speech from US Kansas City Fed chief Esther George later in the day and another from ECB Governing Council member Benoit Coeure.
Shares in German electric utility E.On were edging higher on reports it was set to return to debt markets with a sale of up to €3.0bn in new bonds.
Bayer was also making headlines after Bloomberg reported Syngenta was running the ruler over some of its assets.
Germany's Lufthansa was also on the up after trade union Verdi acquiesced to a three-year pay deal, eliminating the risk of further strikes.