- OECD leading indicators show growth stabilising
- Praet (ECB): Too early to talk about exit
- Spanish 10 year bond yields 8bp higher ahead of Thursday auction
- Yen at 20-month low versus the single currency

FTSE-100: 0.15%
Dax-30: 0.58%
Cac-40: 0.42%
FTSE Mibtel 30: 0.43%
Ibex 35: 0.16%
Stoxx 600: 0.03%

European equities are continuing to trade slightly higher despite the release of weaker than expected Eurozone and Italian industrial production figures earlier on and ahead of several policy speeches from different members of the US Federal Reserve, including the President Ben Bernanke himself, tonight.

That comes after two members of the US Fed expressed unease with the current policy settings last week.

Acting as a backdrop, most market commentary is calling attention to remarks out from the chief of the Chicago Federal Reserve, Charles Evans, overnight, to the effect that markets can rest assured that the central bank will maintain its expansionary policies until its main goals are met.

Worth mentioning, industrial production in the Eurozone contracted by 3.7% year-on-year in November, the largest contraction since November 2009, with widespread weakness by sectors but while at the same time being concentrated in periphery countries. Production from the capital goods sector rose by 0.7% versus the prior month, albeit after the previous two months' sharp drops.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) composite leading indicator for the Eurozone, during the month of November, rose to 99.5 points from 99.4 in the previous month, and points to growth stabilising.

Acting as a backdrop, the Yen hit a 20 month low versus the single currency today.

Swatch mis-priced Deutsche Bank says, Burberry's target hiked

Meantime, and on the corporate front, French construction group Saint-Gobain is rising after Ardagh Group said it has agreed to buy Verallia North America, its glass bottle-and-jar unit, for $1.7bn.

Shares of Dutch package delivery firm TNT are plummeting by 42% after UPS withdrew its take-over bid in anticipation that European Commission antitrust regulators will block the €5.16bn transaction.

Swatch Group is moving higher after saying it is buying the Harry Winston watch and jewelry brand for about $1bn. Also buttressing the shares are positive remarks from analysts at Deutsche Bank who consider them to be one of the most mis-priced (in a positive sense) within the luxury goods sector (as an aside, Deutsche bank has today lifted its price target on UK-listed Burberry).

German car manufacturer Daimler aims to cut its debt to €6.5 bn ($8.7bn) from about €7bn, its Chief Executive Bernd Scheifele told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in an interview, Reuters says.

Separately, German magazine Der Spiegel reported that Daimler will extend Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche's contract by five years, two years more than expected.

Spanish banks' net ECB borrowings fell to €313.1bn in December, down from €340.8bn in November.

From a sector stand-point the best performers now on the DJ Stoxx 600 are Automobiles & parts (1.31%), Banks (0.67%), and Construction (0.61%).

Spanish house transactions fall
The German wholesale price index for the month of December remained flat versus the previous month (Consensus: 0.1%).

Eurozone industrial production decreased by 0.3% month-on-month in November (Consensus: 0.2%), weighed down by very large falls in the periphery countries, such as Ireland, Italy and Spain.

Italy's industrial production dropped by an unexpected 1.0% month-on-month in November (Consensus: 0%).

Spanish house transactions fell at a 6.1% year-on-year pace in November, versus a rise of 12.8% in the previous month.

Euro/dollar still trading higher
The euro/dollar is now up by 0.20% to the 1.3369 dollar level.

Front month Brent crude futures are now rising by 0,557 dollars to the 111.26 mark on the ICE.



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