- Result of ECB meeting eyed
- S&P raises view on Portuguese sovereign debt outlook
- Successful Spanish debt auction
- Long-term debt yields lower in 'periphery'

FTSE-100: 0.33%
Dax-30: 0.20%
Cac-40: 0.31%
FTSE Mibtel 30: 0.25%
Ibex 35: 0.52%
Stoxx 600: 0.08%

The main European equity indices continue to trade slightly in the blue ahead of the European Central Bank´s policy announcement and the press conference which is to be held by the central bank´s President, Mario Draghi, afterwards.

For its part, and as expected, the Bank of England, opted to maintain an unchanged policy stance.

Overnight ratings agency Standard&Poor´s (S&P) raised its outlook on Portugal´s sovereign debt to neutral from negative.

The Spanish Treasury successfully sold €5.4bn of debt this morning with rising bid-to-cover ratios and falling yields seen across the full maturity spectrum.

A tale of two firms

French food retailing giant Carrefour has unveiled a small drop, of 2.6%, in its operating income, as it took a hit from its operations in Spain and Italy.

Nevertheless, worse was expected and the company also announced increased capital expenditures aimed at countering the above.

German athletic wear manufacturer Adidas is expecting an increase in sales and profits for this year as it moves to focus on emerging markets. The company raised its dividend by 35%.

Re-insurer Hannover Re expects net income to contract by 7% this year, to roughly €800m.

From a sector stand-point the best performance is now to be seen in the following sectors: Construction (0.78%), Financial services (0.03%) and Real estate (0.48%).

German factory orders dropped by 1.9% month-on-month in January (Consensus: 0.6%).

Single currency moves up

The euro/dollar is now rising by 1.03%, to 1.3110.

Front month Brent crude futures are down by 0.217 dollars to the 110.83 dollar mark on the ICE.

AB

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