-Main Spanish opposition party against ECB rescue
-Main Spanish opposition party asks that any rescue be voted in Parliament
-French PM announces 30bn euros in spending cuts
-Munchau (FT) warns against taking German approval of ESM as a given
-Troika rejects a few aspects of Greek deficit cutting proposals

FTSE-100: -0.19%
Dax-30: -0.09%
Cac-40: -0.26%
FTSE-Mibtel 30: -0.81%
Ibex 35: -0.39%
Stoxx 600: -0.28%

European equities began the day in a slightly mixed fashion, but have now turned around and are registering small falls.

That following weak data out of China and Japan over the weekend and ahead of a week full of potentially market-moving events. Chief amongst those is Wednesday´s ruling from Germany´s constitutional court over the legality of Europe´s new rescue fund, the so-called European Stability Mechanism (ESM). Investors, however, will also be watching the results of Dutch elections -also on Wednesday- and the first results of the stress tests carried out on Spanish banks, tomorrow.

Not to be missed either, there is keen interest in the outcome of the US Federal Reserve´s policy meeting on Thursday.

Friday will see Eurozone finance ministers meet to discuss the situation in Greece and Spain.

In this regard, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has failed to secure agreement from his coalition partners on €11.5bn of spending cuts required by the country's lenders to release the funds which the country so desperately needs so as to recapitalize its banks.

From a sector stand-point the worst performance on the DJ Stoxx 600 is now to be seen in the following industrial groups: banks (-0.40%), telecommunications (-0.42%) and utilities (-0.37%).

Better than expected economic data in France



The French central bank´s business confidence gauge rose to the 93 point level in August, above the 90 point reading seen in the month before (Consensus: 89).

French industrial production rose at a 0.9% month-on-month clip in July (Consensus: -0.5%).

Finland´s industrial production grew by 0.8% month-on-month un July (Consensus: -0.2%).



Slight profit-taking in the euro



The euro/dollar is now down by 0.14% to the 1.28 dollar mark.

Front month Brent crude futures are now rising by 0.218 to the 114.5 dollar level on the ICE.



AB

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