- German financials under pressure
- Buba denies rumours President to resign
- BoJ decision pressures stocks

FTSE-100: -0.04%
Dax-30: -0.32
Cac-40: -0.32%
FTSE Mibtel 30: 0.41%
Ibex 35: -0.31%
Stoxx 600: -0.21%

The main European equity benchmarks are now registering slight declines on what is turning out to be a rather volatile day.

That following the previous day's gains and ahead of a raft of corporate results due out later Stateside.

Worth pointing out, the Bundesbank this morning saw the need to deny rumours regarding the impending exit of its President, Jens Weidmann.

In turn, those reports came on the back of a rather lacklustre reaction to the Bank of Japan's latest decision, overnight. Some traders described the selling which ensued as 'profit taking,' following the last few months' advances in equity markets.

Also weighing on stocks early on, particularly in Germany, were reports that the country's financial market regulator, BaFin, has asked lenders to run simulations on what the cost of a hypothetical break-up of their different business segments would be.

Compensating for the above was the release of a much better than expected reading on German economic confidence, courtesy of the ZEW Institute.

Siemens fiscal first quarter results were leaked to the press, the firm obtained profits to the tune of €1.3bn ($1.7bn), which was better than expected.

French power and transport engineering company Alstom said orders rose 3% in the third quarter.

EADS, the European aerospace and defence group achieved a "very significant improvement" in revenue and operating profit in 2012, Chief Executive Tom Enders said.

From a sector stand-point the worst performance was to be seen in the following industrial groups: Construction (0.85%), Media (-0.70%) and Automobiles (-0.59%).

Important data ahead

The ZEW Institute's economic sentiment index for the month of December will be released at 10:0 AM.

Single currency flat

The euro/dollar is now trading flat at 1.3305.

Front month Brent crude futures are down by 0.099 dollars, to the 111.60 dollar per barrel mark on the NYMEX.

AB

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