Rolls Royce shares recover after Cathay Pacific inspection
UK39;s Ashtead gains on Q1 rental revenue growth
STOXX 600 flat

Sept 3 Reuters Europe stocks struggled for direction on Tuesday as investors remained cautious ahead of a raft of economic data in the runup to the allimportant U.S. jobs report on Friday, while German stocks hit alltime highs.

The panEuropean STOXX 600 index was flat, with German stocks inching 0.2 higher to hit a record peak, building on the positive momentum on interest rates after inflation eased.

We saw a little bit of indecision in the decks yesterday, a bit of rebalancing there, but we still have some positive momentum in European stocks, said Daniela Hathorn, senior market analyst at Capital.com.

I think there39;s going to be a lot of emphasis on this August U.S. payrolls data. It might not provide any surprise or any insights, and it may just continue showing the current trend, but I think investors are very wary going into it.

RollsRoyce provided the biggest boost to the industrial sector with a 4.4 rise as the British aerospace and defense major sought to recover from its biggest oneday drop this year following news of an engine component failure at Cathay Pacific Airways.

Cathay Pacific said three of the 48 RollsRoycepowered planes it had inspected had gone through successful repairs and all of the jets were expected to resume operation by Saturday.

Investors will closely monitor comments from European Central Bank policymakers…