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May 30 (Reuters) - European shares slipped for a third

straight session on Thursday ahead of further economic data from

the euro zone that will provide more clues on the European

Central Bank's interest rate path, while rate woes continued to

dampen sentiment.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index was down 0.1%, as

of 0712 GMT, as miners led the losses with a 1.3% slide.

The main focus will be on the euro zone's economic sentiment

data, due at 0900 GMT, expected to see a slight improvement in

May, while April's unemployment rate due at the same time will

help gauge the economic strength of the region.

Remarks from Irish Central Bank Governor Gabriel Makhlouf

and Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey will be on investors'

radar later in the day, with key inflation readings from the

U.S. and euro zone due on Friday.

German 10-year bund yeilds were steady at 2.671%

on Thursday after a spike in the previous session following weak

U.S. Treasury auctions and strong data that threw rate cuts in

doubt.

Shares of German software company SAP were down

3.3% after a big drop in peer Salesforce ( CRM ), which missed

Wall Street expectations due to weak client spending on its

cloud and enterprise business products.

UK's Auto Trader was the top gainer on STOXX 600,

rising 9% after the car retailer beat analysts' profit estimate.