European stocks lack fireworks as Wall Street on break

Europe's main stock markets trod water Tuesday, lacking both guidance from Wall Street on the US Independence Day holiday and much conviction of their own as they half-heartedly consolidated recent gains.

London, Frankfurt and Paris all ended the day a touch lower, with traders saying they were now looking ahead to key US jobs data at the end of the week for the next trading impulse.

"Volatility is non-existent in European equities as the public holiday in the US has caused markets on this side of the Atlantic to trade sideways," said David Madden, Market Analyst at CMC Markets UK.

In what sounded like an understatement, Josh Mahoney, Market Analyst at IG, called Tuesday "a somewhat uneventful day".

What little action there was centred on Worldpay, a British payments processing company, whose shares rocketed after revealing takeover approaches from US peer Vantiv and banking giant JP Morgan Chase.

The announcement -- which gave no indication of price -- sent Worldpay's stock soaring nearly 30 percent by the close.

On Monday, Paris had rallied 1.5 percent and Frankfurt jumped 1.2 percent, helped by positive eurozone manufacturing data and as indices rebounded from some heavy losses seen last week.

Asian markets reversed early gains Tuesday as a sell-off in technology shares overshadowed a record close on Wall Street and a rally in energy firms.

- They'll soon wake up -

After surging on years of low borrowing costs, the tech sector is suffering selling pressure from profit-taking around the world and increasing talk among central banks that the age of cheap money is coming to an end.

With big-name firms such as Apple and Google parent Alphabet suffering in recent weeks, their Asian counterparts are also feeling the pinch.

The dollar fell against the yen following a missile test by North Korea, the latest provocation to ratchet up tensions over its nuclear weapons ambitions.

Investors are awaiting the release Wednesday of minutes from the Federal Reserve's June policy meeting and key US jobs data Friday, with some analysts expecting them to possibly trigger a brutal awakening from Tuesday's slumber.

"Today marks the calm before the storm, with volatility expected to rise as the economic indicators come thick and fast through the second half of the week," predicted IG's Mahoney.

Oil prices were firmer as they looked to cement a recovery after recently hitting 10-month lows when traders fretted that a pick-up in US output was offsetting cuts by OPEC and Russia.

 - Key figures around 1540 GMT - 

London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.3 percent at 7,357.23 points (close)  

Frankfurt - DAX 30: DOWN 0.3 percent at 12,437.13 (close) 

Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 0.4 percent at 5,174.90 (close) 

EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 0.4 percent at 3,479.47 

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.1 percent at 20,032.35 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng: DOWN 1.5 percent at 25,389.01 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.4 percent at 3,182.80 (close)

New York - CLOSED for bank holiday

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1348 from $1.1363 at 2000 GMT Monday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2918 from $1.2937

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 113.18 yen from 113.46 yen

Oil - Brent North Sea: UP 5 cents $49.73 per barrel

Oil - West Texas Intermediate: UP 10 cents at $47.17