* Futures up 1.4 to 2.1 pct * Wall Street,
Asia surged on
China-
U.S. trade talks March 27 - Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of European equity markets brought toyou by Reuters stocks reporters and anchored today by Helen Reid. Reach her on Messenger toshare your thoughts on market moves: helen.reid.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net MORNING HEADLINE ROUND-UP (0637 GMT) Here's a round-up of key headlines for European companies this morning - note the news thatCasino's Monoprix is going to be teaming up with Amazon to sell groceries on Prime Nowin
Paris. Casino's shares are seen up as much as 5 percent premarket. GSK buys Novartis stake in consumer healthcare venture for
$13 bln H&M Q1 pretax dives in line with expectations, flags more markdowns Deutsche Bank seeks to replace CEO with Goldman executive -report Amazon wins grocery foothold in
France through Monoprix deal Galliford Try to raise
158 mln stg to cover Carillion project costs Nordex sees lower sales, margins as wind industry tightens Akzo Nobel to sell unit to Carlyle, GIC for
10.1 bln euros (Kit Rees) ***** EUROPEAN STOCK FUTURES SURGE (0610 GMT) Futures for the major European stock markets have opened sharply higher, rising 1.1 to 1.8percent with the DAX in the lead, as investors place bets on a strong bounce at the open. Meanwhile analysts are still mulling what caused the late-afternoon slump in sharesyesterday. Here's Peel Hunt strategist Ian Williams: "The trigger was not immediately obvious with neither further strength in the euro, or thelatest wave of Russian diplomatic expulsions, especially convincing reasons for such a move. Amore worrying interpretation is that investors may be taking advantage of even the most modestof rallies to lighten their equity exposure." If Williams is right we may see a volatile session today as well - but for the moment allsigns are pointing to a strong rebound for the European market. (Helen Reid) ***** BULLS TO KEEP THE UPPER HAND (0548 GMT) Goldman Sachs' Bear/Bull indicator is above 70%, a level normally associated with animminent bear market (see below). But the GS team led by Peter Oppenheimer reckons relativelyattractive equity valuations will protect markets from a big drawdown, at least for now. There's also a wide spread in the underlying variables behind the indicator: very low levelsof unemployment and strong growth momentum are normally accompanied with "tighter monetarypolicy, a flatter yield curve and rising core inflation," notes GS. "But these remain subduedand without these risks rising, the prospect of a recession and 'cyclical' bear market is low." Valuation meanwhile is becoming less of a risk, they add - the forward consensus PE for theMSCI AC World is back to its 1990 average and below its average excluding Tech stocks. Highvaluations are mostly confined to the U.S. market. Furthermore, free cash flow yields have increased along with P/E ratios, and the total cashreturn from equities (dividend yield + buyback yield) has risen in most markets. So the overall message from GS is: don't panic! The bulls will prevail, at least for now... (Helen Reid) ***** MORNING CALL: EUROPEAN STOCKS TO BOUNCE BACK STRONGLY(0520 GMT) Good morning and welcome to Live Markets. Risk appetite is back! European stocks are called to open strongly higher today after a weakclose yesterday. They're being pushed up by the equities rally on Wall Street and in
Asiaovernight greeting news that the
U.S. and
China are holding behind-the-scenes trade talks. White House officials are asking
China to cut tariffs on imported cars, allow foreignmajority ownership of financial services firms and buy more
U.S.-made semiconductors, accordingto a person familiar with the discussions. Asian shares bounced back overnight with the Nikkei up 1.7 percent and Chinese blue-chipsgaining 1.2 percent. The gains came after a stellar session on Wall Street with the Dowdelivering its third-biggest point gain ever, jumping 2.8 percent, while the S&P 500 gained 2.7percent and the Nasdaq surged up 3.3 percent. A negative currency effect could weigh on European stocks today, though, with the euro stillnear the six-week high against the dollar it touched yesterday. It had its biggest one-daypercentage gain since June 2017 yesterday. Spreadbetters call the DAX 183 points higher at 11,971, the CAC 40 up 60 points at 5,127,and the FTSE 100 78 points higher at 6,966. (Helen Reid) ***** (Reporting by Helen Reid, Danilo Masoni, Julien Ponthus and Kit Rees)