- Barclays: Spain will not need a bail-out
- EuroStoxx 50 options expiry today
- Banks deposit 179.1bn euros overnight at ECB
- Swiss franc weaker against Euro, haven flows diminish

FTSE-100: 0.15%
Dax30: 0.03%
Cac-40: 0.13%
FTSE Mibtel 30: -0.02%
Ibex 35: 0.08%
Stoxx 600: -0.02%

The main European equity benchmarks have begun the day on a mixed footing, despite the positive close to trading on Wall Street overnight and generally better than expected economic data releases in China this morning.

Of interest, and acting as a backdrop, Barclays Research has issued a report this morning in which it says that Spain is over the worst and that the country will not need to ask for a rescue. There is a fair bit of market commentary in that regard, but some observers remain unconvinced. One such person is Jürgen Michels, an economist at Citigroup, who told The Wall Street Journal that if concerns flair anew about the robustness of governments or the banking system then, "I think this positive environment that we have for the moment is going to change pretty quickly."

Also worth pointing out, today sees the expiry of options for some Europe´s main benchmarks, such as the EuroStoxx 50. That may be a factor behind the markets´ gyrations this session.

Carrefour up again

Shares of Carrefour are gaining after a report that Chief Executive Officer, Georges Plassat, expects to meet his profit targets.

Telecom Italia will seek final offers for its media unit, the company has announced.

From a sector stand-point the best performance on the DJ Stoxx 600 is to be seen in the following sectors: Media (0.85%), Technology (0.62%) and Food (0.55%).

Bad loans rise in Spain
New industrial orders in Italy fell at a 0.5% month-on-month pace in November.

Bad loans rose to 11.4% in November from 11.2% in the previous month according to the latest data out today from the Bank of Spain.

Small gain in single currency
The euro/dollar is now slightly lower by 0.12% to the 1.3360 dollar mark.

Front month Brent crude futures are now down by 0.128 dollars to the 110.98 dollar mark.



AB

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