European stocks mixed on U.S. budget plan, Fed minutes; Dax dips 0.01%

Investing.com - European stocks edged higher on Thursday, after U.S. President Barack Obama proposed his 2014 budget plan, while the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s March meeting showed that several policymakers favor an early end to the bank’s asset purchase program.

During European morning trade, the EURO STOXX 50 fell 0.23%, France’s CAC 40 added 0.12%, while Germany’s DAX 30 dipped 0.01%.

On Wednesday, President Obama unveiled a USD3.77 trillion budget that proposed new taxes on the wealthy along with cuts to benefit programs.

After proposing the budget, Obama also set in motion the next USD109 billion of the reductions to military and domestic programs for the year starting on October 1.

Meanwhile, the Fed minutes, which were inadvertently released ahead of schedule, showed that that a few policymakers saw quantitative easing tapering around midyear, while several others believed it would be appropriate to slow later in the year and to stop by the end of the year.

Financial stocks were mixed. In France, BNP Paribas and Societe Generale gained 0.41% and 0.26%, while in Germany, Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank declined 1.26% and 0.08%.

Meanwhile, peripheral lenders were broadly lower, with Italian banks Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo slipping 0.01% and 0.18% respectively, while Spain's BBVA and Banco Santander retreated 0.57% and 0.91%.

Elsewhere, Axa rallied 1.39%, as Europe’s second-largest insurer, agreed to sell a U.S. unit and transfer certain obligations to Protective Life for EUR820 million.

In London, FTSE 100 inched up only 0.03%, as gains were limited by sharp losses in oil and mining stocks.

Oil and gas giant Anglo American saw shares plunged 2.17%, while rival company BP declined 0.44%.

Mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton added to losses, sliding 0.25% and 0.63% respectively, as did Vedanta Resources and Eurasian Natural Resources, down 2.37% and 5.19%.

In addition, copper producers Xstrata and Kazakhmys saw shares plummet 1.74% and 7.50%.

Meanwhile, U.K lenders trended mostly lower, as HSBC Holdings slipped 0.23% and Lloyds Banking retreated 0.79%, while Barclays lost 0.75%. The Royal Bank of Scotland overperformed on the other hand, adding 0.21%.

In the U.S., equity markets pointed to a mixed open. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures pointed to a 0.05% gain, S&P 500 futures signaled a 0.02% loss, while the Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a 0.19% fall.

Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish the weekly government report on initial jobless claims and data on import prices.