LIVE MARKETS-Europe still in chipper mood?

Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of European equity markets brought to you by Reuters stocks reporters and anchored today by Josephine Mason. Reach her on Messenger to share your thoughts on market moves: josephine.mason.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net

EUROPE STILL IN CHIPPER MOOD? (0627 GMT)

Can the STOXX 600 make it a fourth day of gains?

It's a mixed bag in the early indicators: IG (Frankfurt: A0EARV - news) financial spreadbetters expect London's FTSE to open 13 points lower at 7,178, Frankfurt's DAX to open 21 points higher at 11,189 and Paris' CAC to open 3 points higher at 5,077.

The good news is that noises were generally from Beijing overnight as U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer held meetings in the Chinese capital to ease the trade tensions between the world's two largest economies.

But we'll have to wait til tomorrow to find out if any concrete progress on some of the major sticking points - IP among them - has been made. Whether investors can sustain the chipper mood that has swept the markets this week is not clear.

Chinese trade data released earlier showed exports unexpectedly returned to growth in January after a shock decline the previous month, while imports fell much less than expected, but analysts said it was likely due to seasonal factors and predicted renewed trade weakness ahead.

Closer to home, we'll find out if Germany slipped into recession at the end of last year when Q4 flash GDP is released at 0700 GMT. Seasonally adjusted GDP seen +0.1 pct q/q, +0.7 pct y/y. Unadjusted GDP seen +0.9 pct y/y.

That's followed by closely watched Q4 euro-zone growth data at 0900 GMT - consensus is for 0.2 percent growth, unchanged from Q3.

It's a packed day for earnings too, but more on that later.

(Josephine Mason)

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