European stock markets erased much of their earlier losses on Wednesday, as traders awaited the results of a Federal Reserve meeting on interest rates and U.S. President Barack Obama’s first State of the Union address.
During midday European trading, France’s CAC 40 was down 0.67%; Germany's DAX slipped 0.24%; the EURO STOXX 50 slid 0.84%; and Britain's FTSE 100 was down 0.63%.
The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee’s two-day meeting was expected to yield little in terms of a policy shift, but it came as the market waited to see if Chairman Ben Bernanke would be confirmed in his post for a second term.
Meanwhile, the outlook for U.S. markets was mixed as Dow Jones industrial average futures indicated a fall of 0.05%, S&P 500 index futures pointed to a drop of 0.16% and Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a rise of 0.04%.