Europe midday: Stocks slip ahead of ECB
Stocks are holding lower, tracking a mixed close on Wall Street overnight and on the back of a mixed batch of economic data out of China overnight and a tweak in monetary policy by the People's Bank of China - a timely reminder perhaps of the potential ripple effects of US policy decisions and vice-versa.
Traders were also waiting on policy announcements from the European Central Bank at 1245 GMT.
Against that backdrop, as of 1225 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was edging lower by 0.37% or 1.46 points to close at 389.24, alongside a fall of 0.62% or 80.88 points to 13,044.77 in the Dax and a 0.46% or 8.40 point dip for the Cac-40 to 5,390.93.
On Wednesday evening, rate-setters in the States tightened policy yet again, as expected, raising the target range for the main policy rate by 25 basis points to between 1.25% and 1.50%, as expected.
However, two top officials dissented from the decision, saying instead that they would prefer to keep rates on hold.
They were backed up to an extent by a rather glum assessment from outgoing Fed chair Janet Yellen regarding the potential impact that Republican's proposed tax cuts would have on economic growth.
Meanwhile, the latest readings on Chinese industrial production, fixed asset investment and retail sales for November came in roughly as economists had projected - except for the latter.
Yet looking at the figures in greater detail some economists continued to see signs of an impending slowdown in the near-term.
On top of that, in reaction to the Fed's decision the PBoC raised two of its secondary lending rates slightly higher.
That prompted analysts at Capital Economics to tell clients: "Our best guess is that they are doing the minimum possible in order to still be seen as 'following the Fed' with the goal of supporting sentiment on the renminbi, which has weakened during the past 24 hours in response to Fed tightening.
"Indeed, for this reason we still think that Chinese monetary conditions are more likely to end next year looser than they are now rather than tighter."
Back in Europe, IHS Markit's composite euro area purchasing managers' index jumped from a reading of 57.5 for October to 58.0 in November (consensus: 57.2) - an 82-month high.
Airbus continued to be on traders' radar, with Reuters reporting that according to two people familiar with the matter Delta Air Lines had "looked closely" at putting in an order for 100 Airbus A321neo jets.