LIVE MARKETS-2 trillion EU teaser snubbed

* Crude futures rebound

* U.S. stimulus helps

* Earnings galore in Europe

* Horrid PMIs

* All eyes on U.S. job data Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of European equity markets brought to you by Reuters stocks reporters. You can share your thoughts with Thyagaraju Adinarayan (thyagaraju.adinarayan@thomsonreuters.com), Joice Alves (joice.alves@thomsonreuters.com) and Julien Ponthus (julien.ponthus@thomsonreuters.com) in London and Stefano Rebaudo (stefano.rebaudo@thomsonreuters.com) in Milan.

2 TRILLION EU TEASER SNUBBED (1128 GMT)

It's getting harder and harder to get a sense of what kind of data or news gets to move equity markets during this coronavirus pandemic.

Investors didn't budge earlier on horrendous euro zone and UK PMIs.

Maybe, it was about today's EU summit?

"PMI data are not very significant, today all eyes are on EU negotiations", a Milan-based sales trader told us.

True, in morning notes, the video-conference of EU leaders was seen as a "make or break" meeting (Rabobank) and for Deutsche Bank, "the most important event today" given that it has to tackle how to finance the bloc's recovery plan.

After the ECB's decision to let banks post debt downgraded to junk as collateral and growing excitement about Spain's proposal to finance the fund via perpetual debt, there's quite a lot at stake.

"Without strong solidarity between European governments, the risk of a financing crisis is real", also wrote Laurent Millet, a manager of the Artemis European Equities Fund.

But when an internal note unveiled by Reuters showed the European Commission was considering to propose EU leader a plan that would produce two trillion euros to finance the recovery, the reaction on markets was muted again.

There was a slight rise on both the Milan and Madrid exchanges, as the two countries are expected to benefit from some form of debt mutualisation, but it was both timid and short lived.

There's some optimism however elsewhere as with Italian government debt yields falling on hopes the meeting will make progress on joint financing the recovery plan.

While we wait for the conclusion of the EU summit and the very much expected U.S. job data, the STOXX 600 (+0.2% at the moment) is continuing to gently yoyo its way through a trendless session.

(Julien Ponthus and Stefano Rebaudo)

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"IMMUNE TO DATA" (0927 GMT)

Business activity is at a record low in the euro zone and the UK but that hasn't moved the STOXX 600 or the FTSE that much.

European markets initially got off to a modestly positive start then kept on hovering up and down the floating line, paying, it seems, little attention to absolutely awful macro numbers.

The EZ PMI sank to 13.5, by far its lowest reading since the survey began in mid-1998 and considerably below all forecasts in a Reuters poll.

In the UK, coronavirus hit the economy in April with more force than even the most pessimistic forecasters had feared as businesses reported an historic collapse in demand during a nationwide lockdown. But investors didn't get too stressed out and the FTSE 100 barely moved.

This echoes Wall Street indexes rising on Thursdays for the last four weeks in a row despite horrid initial jobless claims.

"The rather muted reaction relative to the amplitude of the misses proves the lack of surprise for markets which are almost immune to data at the moment", Olivier Konzeoue, FX Sales Trader at Saxo Markets wrote.

For ING economist James Smith, "there’s little doubt these are shocking figures, but the reality is they don’t tell us an awful lot that we didn’t already know."

Another way to look at it is that actually, given the situation, PMIs don't make as much sense as they do in 'normal' times.

"If people answered surveys accurately (which they do not) it should be almost zero", commented UBS economist Paul Donovan on twitter.

"The question is 'how are things compared to last month?' There is no scale question asked, it is just 'are things better or worse?'", he reminded his followers.

"Why would ANY service sector company be saying 'better'", Donovan asked about the survey.

Anyhow, the muted reaction of the STOXX 600 is visible below:

Here is your list of eye-watering record lows:

- Record dive in German business activity shows "shocking" coronavirus impact - PMI

-French business activity crashes to new record low in April - PMIs

-Coronavirus brings UK economy to its knees in April - PMI

(Joice Alves with Julien Ponthus)

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OPENING SNAPSHOT: SHAKY 'RISK ON' MOOD (0747 GMT)

European shares are hovering up and down the floating line this morning with the rebound in oil prices helping keep sentiment afloat.

The tentative upward trend of futures prior to the open has gradually fizzled out of steam.

The STOXX 600 is currently down 0.4%. It does look like a risk-on day though with oil and gas shares up 2% with other cyclicals such as banks, autos, basic materials and industrials in positive territory.

Travel and Leisure, the coronavirus crisis fear and greed gauge is also up 0.3%.

There's been quite a big release of earnings and so far of the biggest move, as far as blue chips are concerned is Unilever, down 5.6% after the consumer goods giant withdrew its 2020 forecast.

Volvo is also in the red, down 3.2% after it warned of weakening truck demand.

(Julien Ponthus)

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ON THE RADAR: CREDIT SUISSE, UNILEVER, VOLVO AND DAIMLER (0653 GMT)

European bourses seem set to stay in the black, but no clear trend emerged so far after yesterday's rebound. Meantime, more government cash is on the way in Europe's richest economy to back companies as they fight to survive coronavirus lockdowns.

Corporate headlines piling up this morning are speaking again about the damage made by the pandemic, with the usual batch of dividend freezing and profit warnings.

On dividends: Unilever withdraws outlook for 2020 but will pay interim dividend, while ProSieben withdraws 2020 outlook and 2019 dividend proposal. Equinor will cut its quarterly dividend payment by two-thirds. Swedbank puts dividend decision on hold.

Credit Suisse posted a 75% rise in first-quarter net profit, but cautioned the pandemic could impact performance.

Schneider Electric reports a smaller-than-expected first-quarter revenue decline.

Daimler AG preliminary first-quarter earnings before interest and tax that slumped 78% to 617 million euros. Meantime, Truck maker Volvo profit falls less than expected.

Epiroc posts profit beat but warns of pandemic pain in Q2.

Accor, forced it to close hotels worldwide, has enough liquidity to withstand the turmoil but did not have enough visibility yet in terms of the financial impact on 2020 results.

Royal Dutch Shell has postponed decisions on whether to go ahead with two large oil and gas developments in the Gulf of Mexico and North Sea after oil prices collapsed.

In the luxury industry, Moncler hopes to limit the financial damage from the crisis with a strong rebound in the final part of the year, after sales fell 18% in Q1.

Air France-KLM is moving towards a 10 billion euro ($10.9 billion) government-backed rescue deal.

(Stefano Rebaudo)

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MORNING CALL: VERY, VERY CAUTIOUSLY UP (0543 GMT)

European futures are trading just slightly in positive territory, with investors still cautious after this week's collapse in crude futures which highlighted the extent of the economic damage inflicted by the pandemic.

The latest rebound of Brent crude oil is however helping sentiment and so is the prospect of yet more U.S. stimulus.

The U.S. Senate unanimously approved a new relief package, which the House of Representatives is expected to approve today.

U.S. job data later today will be closely watched and so will European PMIs earlier this morning.

It's also earnings galore with one of the most busy days in the Q1 reporting season in Europe.

(Stefano Rebaudo)

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(Reporting by Thyagaraju Adinarayan, Joice Alves, Stefano Rebaudo and Julien Ponthus)