EUROPEAN MARKET NEWS

GLOBAL MARKET NEWS - EUROPEAN MARKET


     European equities are likely to retreat from

one-month highs on Thursday, weighed down by weak manufacturing data from China
and tracking losses on Wall Street overnight after the U.S. Federal Reserve
stopped short of announcing a third round of quantitative easing.
    The euro zone crisis remained very much in the spotlight, with Spain's
borrowing costs expected to hit a new euro era high at a debt auction on
Thursday, a few hours before it sheds light on the dire state of its weaker
banks and possibly makes a formal request for European Union funds to rescue
them. 
    Futures for Euro STOXX 50, for Germany's DAX, for France's
CAC and for Britain's FTSE were all down 0.5 to 0.6 percent.
    The retreat is set to come after strong gains in the run up to the Fed
decision on Wednesday, when the FTSEurofirst 300 added 0.5 percent to
post its highest closing level in over a month.