By Richard Hubbard
LONDON (Reuters) - Ongoing support from easy central bank monetary policies underpinned global stocks on Thursday although profit-taking pushed European and Japanese shares off multi-year highs.
In early European trading the blue chip Euro STOXX 50, Britain's FTSE 100, Germany's DAX and France's CAC-40 were 0.1 to 0.8 percent lower. MSCI's world index, which tracks stocks in 45 countries, was flat following a slight gain in Asian stocks.
The euro was little changed at $1.3150, failing to build on the one-week high of $1.322 hit on Wednesday. Brent crude traded around $104 a barrel and safe have German bond futures were steady.
"We've seen a bit of stabilisation and positive surprises in the data recently, but we need to careful about reading to much into it," said Morgan Stanley currency strategist Ian Stannard.
Robust Germany industrial output and China's stronger than
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expected trade performance have boosted investor sentiment this week with the mood enhanced by strong jobs growth in Australian and New Zealand reported earlier on Thursday.
Activity in European markets was expected to be thin as many centres are closed for a holiday with interest centred on a Spanish bond sale and a policy meeting of the Bank of England, where rates are likely to be left unchanged.
(Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)