Earlier in the day, Australia's central bank held interest rates steady, but reiterated its warning that further tightening might be needed to cool prices.
However, a 2.7% increase in real estate stocks (.SX86P) helped keep the STOXX 600 steady, while healthcare stocks (.SXDP) rebounded from the previous day's sharp declines.
Travel and leisure (.SXTP) stocks edged higher as Irish airline Ryanair's(RYA.I) upbeat monthly traffic numbers helped sentiment for the sector.
Britain's second-largest supermarket group Sainsubury (SBRY.L) fell 1.8% as fierce competition in the sector took shine off its robust quarterly sales.
German chip firm Aixtron (AIXGn.DE) dropped 0.5% after China said it will control exports of some metals widely used in the semiconductor industry.
Persons:
Michael Hewson, Stuart Cole, Amruta Khandekar, Shreyashi Sanyal, Dhanya Ann Thoppil, David Gregorio Our
Organizations:
U.S, Independence, CMC Markets, EU, Fed, ECB, European Central Bank, Equiti, Wall, Thomson
Locations:
China, U.S, Bengaluru