-PIMCO continues to buy European debt
-Eurozone services PMI as expected
-German retail sales ahead of forecasts
-Several US FOMC members thought probably appropriate stop QE well before end 2013

FTSE-100: 0.35%
Dax-30: -0.05%
Cac-40: -0.20%
FTSE-Mibtel 30: 0.14%
Ibex 35: 0.18%
Stoxx 600: 0.01%

The main European equity benchmarks cut their losses following the release of what at first glance appeared to have been a largely 'in-line' monthly US employment report.

The above followed the release of the minutes of the US Federal Reserve´s last rate setting meeting, at which several of its policy makers seemed to put forward the possibility of halting its current bond repurchase program towards the middle of the year.

Also worth pointing out, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) called attention to the fact that Spanish authorities have been employing the state´s pension reserve fund as a last ditch buyer of sovereign bonds. This was already known, but may be worth watching nonetheless.

More macroeconomic data was yet to be released Stateside today.

Cyclicals lead falls

Airbus looks set to post sales of around 900 aircraft for 2012 and exceed its target of 580 deliveries after a record month in December, a Reuters analysis of industry figures showed.

German automobile manufacturer BMW said its US December sales rose 34.8% to 43,855 vehicles.

Daimler´s US unit unveiled sales in December which totaled 31,372 vehicles, up 12% from the same month last year.

From a sector stand-point the worst performance within the DJ Stoxx 600 was to be seen in the following group´s of shares: Basic resources (-1.16%), Technology (-0.43%) and Media (-0.32%).

Better than expected German data
The Eurozone service sector purchasing managers index for the month of December came in at 47.8, just as expected.
The Eurozone´s consumer price index increased to a 2.2% year-on-year rate of change in December, ahead of the 2.1% advance expected.

German retail sales rose by 1.2% month-on-month in November, ahead of the 0.8% rise which had been foreseen by analysts.

Small drop in the single currency
The euro/dollar had turned around and was rising to the 1.3045 dollar mark.

Front month Brent crude futures were off by 1.145 dollars to the 110.87 dollar level.



AB

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