European stocks were slightly higher in cautious trade Tuesday as a two-day meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve gets underway later today, with investors expecting the U.S. central bank to hike rates by 25 basis points and maintain expectations of three hikes in 2018.
Other major central banks, including the European Central Bank, Bank of England and the Swiss National Bank will announce their policy decisions on Thursday.
Meanwhile, official data showed that U.K. inflation rose an annual 3.1 percent in November, the highest rate in more than 5 1/2 years and up from 3 percent in October, forcing Bank of England governor Mark Carney to explain why inflation is so far above target.
The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index was up 0.2 percent at 390.01 in late opening deals after closing little changed with a negative bias on Monday.
The German DAX, France's CAC 40 index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 were also up around 0.2 percent each.
Atos jumped 5 percent in Paris after the IT services group made a formal proposal to acquire Gemalto for a total consideration of approximately 4.3 billion euros. Gemalto shares surged 34 percent in Amsterdam.
Balfour Beatty advanced 1 percent. The British infrastructure group said its performance in 2017 remains in line with board expectations.
Consumer credit reporting agency Experian rallied 2.2 percent. The company said it would acquire a minority stake in mortgage brokerage London & Country Mortgages Limited.
Tullow Oil climbed 2 percent and Total SA advanced 1.3 percent as Brent crude hit a more than two-year high after the closure of a major North Sea pipeline for repair.
British industrial equipment hire company Ashtead jumped 4 percent after lifting its full-year guidance and launching a £1bn share buyback program.
Italian lender UniCredit rose half a percent after confirming its fiscal 2019 targets.
Zurich Insurance Group was marginally higher after signing a pact to acquire ANZ's life insurance businesses, OnePath Life, in Australia for A$2.85 billion or $2.14 billion.
Swiss mining giant Glencore lost over 1 percent ahead of an investor briefing.
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May 15, 2026 15:25 ET Apart from the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair, the main news on the economics front this week included key price data from the U.S. and the first quarter economic growth figures from major economies. Both consumer prices and producer costs have started to reflect the effect of supply shocks due to the Middle East conflict. In Europe, GDP data was in focus, while inflation data from China dominated the news flow in Asia.