MORNING BID EUROPE-Baku plea for help as oil woes deepen

* A look at the day ahead from European Economics and Politics Editor Mark John and EMEA Markets Editor Mike Dolan. The views expressed are their own.

LONDON, Jan 28 (Reuters) - As the slump in oil prices hits the economies of producer nations, the IMF is sending a team to Azerbaijan's capital Baku today for what it calls a fact-finding mission into the state of a country which has had to impose capital controls amid a crumbling currency and street protests. During the week-long trip, the government plans to ask the Fund for $3 billion in financial aid and will seek a further $1 billion in World Bank loans, a source familiar with the matter says.

Italy is one of the few Western nations not to legalise same-sex marriage or civil unions, with the influence of the Catholic Church weighing heavily on a debate due to resume in Italian parliament today. While most parties agree that same-sex couples and unmarried heterosexual couples should be afforded some rights and protection under the law, there are fierce divisions over whether gay couples should be allowed to adopt children. The ruling PD party's junior government partner, the New Centre Right (NCD), has threatened it could pull its ministers out of the cabinet over the issue.

The UK economy looks to have lost yet more pace in the final months of 2015, with data forecast to show the weakest annual expansion for nearly three years as weak overseas demand leaves the economy reliant on consumers. Analysts are expecting around 0.5 percent quarterly growth for the fourth quarter with 1.9 percent on the year. Other data out today include Spanish jobless, German CPI and euro zone sentiment.

MARKETS AT 0745 GMT

With (Other OTC: WWTH - news) the Fed doffing its hat to financial market ructions and international concerns, albeit less pointedly than ECB chief Draghi or Bank of England governor Carney, it now sets up a bit of a cat and mouse game with world markets. If there's no stabilization in the latter, all bets for a March rate hike are off. At the same time, any market strengthening will be undermined by the prospect of that emboldening the Fed to act again. Inflation and real sector data will have to make a case otherwise, and we're then back to watching to the oil price. Brent has firmed above $33 overnight as OPEC stories keep traders on edge. The reaction to the Fed last night was fairly muted all around though. Futures markets now have only about a 1-in-5 chance of another rate rise priced for March. The dollar and 2-year Treasury yields are barely changed from levels before the meeting. The S&P500 did lose more than 1 pct, but that's been as much to do with the dour earnings season. Although Shanghai stocks lost almost 3 pct in Asia trading, taking them to their lowest in more than a year and down almost 25 pct in the year to date, the rest of Asia bourses were more mixed. HK and Seoul were higher and Tokyo's Nikkei was off about 0.7 pct. Eurostocks are set to follow Wall St and are marked down about 0.5 pct. Poor earnings from Roche and Deutsche posting 1.15 billion of losses at its investment bank will weigh. Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT - news) , Microsoft (NasdaqGS: MSFT - news) and Ford out later.

Upcoming events/data/ themes for market reports on Thursday:

- European corp events: Diageo (LSE: DGE.L - news) , Anglo American (LSE: AAL.L - news) , 3i Group, Roche, H&M, Electrolux (Stockholm: ELUX-A.ST - news)

- UK Q4 GDP

- EZ Jan business/consumer confidence

- SAfrica rate decision

- German Jan inflation

- Spain Q4 jobless, Dec (Shanghai: 600875.SS - news) retail sales

- Sweden Dec jobless, retail sales

- Israel Jan inflation

- Brazil Dec jobless

- US Q4 earnings: Caterpillar, Microsoft, Ford, Amazon, Raytheon, T.Rowe Price, Bristol Myers Squibb, Time Warner (Xetra: AOL1.DE - news) , Eli Lilly, Blackstone (NYSE: BX - news) , Eastman Chemical (NYSE: EMN - news)

- US Dec durable goods report, pending home sales

- US Treasury auctions 7-yr notes (Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)