European stocks as investors look ahead to central bank meetings

European stocks traded higher Tuesday morning as investors shifted their focus to upcoming central bank meetings by the U.S. Federal Reserve, Bank of Japan and Bank of England. 

The pan-European Stoxx 600 added 0.5% by mid-morning following a muted open, with retail stocks adding 1.6% to lead gains while financial services edged 0.2% lower.

Investors in Europe are looking ahead to the results of the latest U.S. Federal Reserve meeting taking place Tuesday-Wednesday, although the central bank is not expected to make any changes to its monetary policy stance and reacting to the latest data from China.

Meanwhile, stocks in Asia-Pacific were mostly higher after data showed retail sales in China rose 0.5% in August from a year ago — the first positive report for the year so far — according to the country’s National Bureau of Statistics. Still, retail sales for the first eight months of the year were down 8.6% from a year ago, the bureau said.

Chinese industrial production grew 5.6% in August from a year ago while fixed-asset investment declined 0.3% for the first eight months of the year.

U.S. stock futures ticked slightly lower on Monday night after the market kicked off the week with a broad-based rally. Futures tied to the Nasdaq 100 slipped 0.2%, while those for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 slouched 0.1%. The move in futures follows a rebound session for Wall Street on Monday.

In terms of individual share price action, H&M rallied more than 13% in early trade after beating third-quarter profit expectations. Fiat Chrysler added more than 6% after a revision of its planned merger with Peugeot maker PSA.

The move also sent shares of French auto parts supplier Faurecia tumbling 6.6%, while German business bank Grenke dropped 8.8% to the bottom of the European blue-chip index. 

– CNBC’s Eustance Huang and Jesse Pound contributed to this market report.