- EU summit starts today
- Spanish bond yields rise after sale of long-term debt
- Single currency drops below 1.30
- Banks deposit 112.91bn euros overnight at ECB

FTSE-100: 0.36%
Dax-30: 0.80%
Cac-40: 0.62%
FTSE Mibtel 30: 1.37%
Ibex 35: 1.40%
Stoxx 600: 0.65%

The main European equity benchmarks are now registering large gains, bouncing from yesterday´s retreat in the wake of the gains seen overnight on Wall Street.

That comes ahead of the release of a round of macroeconomic indicators Stateside this afternoon and the start of the EU summit -to be held today and tomorrow. The assembled leaders are expected to

Switzerland´s central bank has kept its main policy rate unchanged at between 0.0% and 0.25%, as expected.

General gains

Shares of Italian insurer Generali gained after unveiling a 12% increase in its fourth-quarter operating profit.

Deutsche Lufthansa expects its operating profit to improve this year and
next.

HeidelbergerCement is up after announcing that it succeeded in bringing down in its debt last year quicker than analysts had predicted.

From a sector stand-point the worst performance is to be seen in the following sectors: Insurance (1.69%), Telecommunications (1.58%) and Banks (1.49%).

Employment shrinks

Eurozone employment dropped by 0.3% quarter-on-quarter in the last three months of 2012, after a retreat of 0.1% in the previous quarter.

Spanish retail sales fell by 10.2% year-on-year, after contracting at a 11.1% clip in December.

The Greek unemployment rate rose to 26% in the last three months of 2012, after a reading of 24.8% in the previous quarter.

Single currency drops through 1.30

The euro/dollar has hit a three month low at 1.2930.

Front month Brent crude future are now lower by 0.42% to the 109.19 dollar mark on the ICE.

AB

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