LIVE MARKETS-European futures inch lower

April 13 - Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of European equity markets brought to

you by Reuters stocks reporters and anchored today by Helen Reid. Reach her on Messenger to

share your thoughts on market moves: helen.reid.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net

EUROPEAN FUTURES INCH LOWER (0612 GMT)

Futures have opened pretty vaguely this morning, lacking direction but pointing to a

slightly higher open for the DAX, while they're trading lower for the Eurostoxx 50.

In corporate news, Volkswagen (IOB: 0P6N.IL - news) will be one to watch, indicated higher in pre-markets after it

named Herbert Diess as its new chief executive.

L'Oreal is also seen rising after luxury cosmetics and China drove a sales beat for the

first quarter.

VW names new boss to steer sweeping overhaul

Luxury cosmetics and China drive sales bounce at L'Oreal

(Helen Reid)

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FOCUS ON ITALY AS GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS EASE (0551 GMT)

Another saga on investors' radar today is the effort to form a government in Italy. SocGen (Paris: FR0000130809 - news)

analysts say: "Chances are that Salvini, leader of the League, will be asked to form a

government but we expect his chances of rapid success to be slim."

Talks to try to break the stalemate made no progress yesterday as parties refused to

compromise - our full story here:

Overall markets seem less concerned about geopolitics than earlier this week. SocGen

analysts note that "conciliatory comments from President Trump about prospects for a positive

resolution of the trade frictions with China and over NAFTA, and suggestions the U.S. may join

the TPP after all, helped to improve risk sentiment."

Trump said he would only join the Pacific trade pact if the deal were "substantially better"

than that offered to President Obama.

(Helen Reid)

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MORNING CALL: TEPID END TO THE WEEK FOR EUROPEAN STOCKS (0526 GMT)

Good morning.

Main European benchmarks are called very slightly lower this Friday the 13th, after a marked

recovery yesterday. Attention shifted yesterday to the U.S. earnings season expected to be very

strong, and today investors will watch reports from big banks JP Morgan and Citigroup (NYSE: C - news) closely.

"Recent price action might suggest that we could look to head towards the upper end of the

trading range in the coming days, particularly if U.S. earnings come in ahead of expectations,"

says CMC Markets (LSE: CMCX.L - news) ' Michael Hewson.

Over in Asia, trading was more muted on Chinese indices especially after data from China

showing March exports unexpectedly fell while imports grew more than forecast.

Spreadbetters call the DAX 2 points lower at 12,413, the CAC 40 down 4 points at 5,305, and

the FTSE 100 8 points lower at 7,250.

If all goes well today the STOXX 600 will seal its third straight week of gains, its longest

winning streak since the heady days of January when global equity markets were in a roaring

rally. Below you can see how much bigger weekly swings have been since then, with many saying

we're in a new volatility regime.

(Helen Reid)

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(Reporting by Danilo Masoni, Helen Reid, Kit Rees and Julien Ponthus)