-German constitutional court will not delay decision
-Bank of Spain (BoS) may reveal stress-test results to banks today
-50% chance US may tap strategic oil reserves -Citi
-Barroso to present bank supervision plan tomorrow
-Greek June-Aug. deficit at €12.4bn versus €18.6bn year ago
-Goldman Sachs prefers emerging markets over Europe

FTSE-100: -0.29%
Dax-30: 0.03%
Cac-40: -0.23%
FTSE-Mibtel 30: -0.57%
Ibex 35: -0.71%
Stoxx 600: -0.23%

The main European equity indices are now trading slightly higher than this morning, ahead of the much awaited ruling from Germany's constitutional court.

All of the above after a last minute objection, last night, from a German lawmaker threatened to derail the announcement by the country´s constitutional court of its decision as regards Germany´s participation in the so-called European Stability Mechanism (ESM). Finally, however, the court has announced this morning that a decision can be expected for tomorrow, as initially planned.

Nevertheless, some observers are warning that "the devil may be in the details."

That as Spain´s Prime Minister has said that his country will not accept Europe telling it how to specifically allocate its money, although it is willing to meet any targets set. In any case, no decision has yet been taken as regards asking Europe for a rescue.

For his part, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has stated that Spain need not apply for a full program because economic and fiscal progress made since implementing reforms means that a full bailout isn't necessary, Bloomberg reports.

Deutsche Bank raises RoE target



From a sector stand-point the worst performance on the DJ Stoxx 600 can now be seen in the following sectors: basic resources (-1.60%), personal&household goods (-1.46%) and Construction and materials (-1.0%).

Lighting giant Philips is to eliminate 2,200 additional jobs so as to wring an extra €300m in savings to compensate for the deterioration in the economy.

That comes on the heels of a profit-warning from Burberry and lay-off announcements at Hewlett Packard and BHP Billiton overnight.

Luxury good outfits PPR and Cie. Financiere Richemont have been caught in the downdraft from Burberry´s warning.

Deutsche Bank, Europe's largest, will cut costs by €4.5bn in a bid to boost profitability despite higher capital requirements and Europe's debt crisis. Deutsche Bank will seek to increase its after-tax return on equity (RoE) to at least 12% by 2015, the Frankfurt-based lender said in a statement today, from 8.2% in 2011.




German prices above forecasts



German wholesale prices rose by 1.1% month-on-month in August (Consensus: 0.3%).

French non-farm payrolls were down in by 0.1% in the second quarter, as expected.

Unemployment in the OECD worsened by a tenth of a percentage point in July, to 8.0%.



Single currency edging higher on German news



The euro/dollar is now at 1.2780, up 0.20% on the day.

Front month Brent crude futures are rising by 0.104 dollars, to 114.93.



AB

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