-Spanish central government budget deficit falls to 4.39 per cent
-Eurogroup teleconference now in progress
-Eurozone banks tightened lending standards in third quarter -ECB

FTSE-100: -0.14%
Dax-30: 0.60%
Cac-40: 0.31%
FTSE Mibtel 30: 0.98%
Ibex 35: 0.74%
Stoxx 600: 0.20%

For the most part the major European equity benchmarks are now trading moderately higher.

That ahead of what may turn out to be a somewhat haphazard re-start to trading Stateside, a few observers are worrying. In a more positive vein, investors seem to be concentrating on the positive macroeconomic data out today in Germany, which has come alongside some better than expected company results.

Acting as a backdrop we have this afternoon´s result of the conference-call between Eurozone finance ministers to discuss the situation in Greece, which is now in progress. No firm new decisions are expected but the news flow could conceivably influence markets.

Also of interest, according to the European Central Bank´s (ECB) latest bank lending survey a net 15% of the Eurozone´s banks which took part in the survey tightened their criteria for firms to borrow in the third quarter, up from 10% in the second quarter.

Large rises in airline groups

Air France-KLM is jumping 7% higher after Europe's largest airline reported a 27% increase in third- quarter operating profit to €506m (£408m), far ahead of consensus estimates, as did its close rival Air France.

ArcelorMittal is lower after earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) dropped to $1.34bn (£832m) from $2.41bn a year ago, which was actually what was expected by analysts.

From a sector stand-point the best performance on the Stoxx 600 is now to be seen in the following industrial groups: Automobiles (1.18%), Insurance (0.91%) and Telecommunications (0.66%).

Eurozone unemployment at new recordSpain´s current account surplus increased to €1.2bn in August, above the previous month´s reading of €0.5bn.

The Eurozone´s unemployment rate rose by a tenth of a percentage point in September, to 11.6%, from a revised 11.5% in the month before (Consensus: 11.5%).

The Eurozone´s consumer price index for the month of October dropped to 2.5% year-on-year from 2.6% in the previous month.

German retail sales grew by 1.5% month-on-month in September (Consensus: 0.3%), versus last month´s reading of 0.3%.

French producer prices increased at a 0.3% month-on-month pace in September (Consensus: 0.2%).

French consumer spending rose by 0.1% month-on-month in September (Consensus: 0.2%), after a fall of 0.8% in August.

Spanish housing permits dropped by 37.2 month-on-month in August, after an increase of 10.6% in July.

Capital flight from Spain slowed down somewhat in August, by -34.7%, to €247.2bn.

Slight rise in crude futures
The euro/dollar is now up by 0.29% to the 1.3010 mark.

Front month Brent crude futures are rising by 0.493 dollars to the 109.62 dollar level on the ICE.



AB

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