Europe seen lower on Fed, China data

European equities are expected to open lower Thursday as investors digest the latest minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve and react to weak China data.

Global markets are digesting the minutes from the Fed's last meeting that were released Wednesday. The minutes showed policymakers mostly brushed aside the wobbly start the U.S. economy in 2015, attributing the lack of growth to "transitory" factors that will abate soon. Only a few policymakers supported a June rate hike.

Investors are now looking ahead to a speech Friday by the central bank's chair, Janet Yellen, for more hints on when the central bank might hike rates.

In Europe, flash manufacturing and services PMI data for May will be in focus and could show the euro zone economy continuing to improve.

Elsewhere, Greece remains under the spotlight as reforms-for-aid talks continue, although the prospect of the country being able to make a loan repayment to the International Monetary Fund on June 5 is looking less likely by the day.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Wednesday that he couldn't rule out a Greek default, the Wall Street journal reported, putting more pressure on Athens.

In business news, investors will be watching how the shares of banks JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Barclay's, RBS and UBS perform Thursday after they were fined a total of more than $5.5 billion for rigging rates, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Wednesday.

The dollar traded near a two-week peak against a basket of major currencies early on Thursday, having held on to most of its gains after closely watched minutes from the Federal Reserve's April meeting contained no major surprises.

The dollar was particularly bid against the euro, which sank heavily on Tuesday after it was revealed the European Central Bank may accelerate its bond-buying stimulus program.

The euro last traded at $1.1094, having fallen as far as $1.1062 - a low seen late in April. Against the yen, the greenback scaled a two-month peak of 121.49, before taking a step back to 121.24 in early Asian trade.

The dollar index stood at 95.588, just below its overnight high of 95.837.