LIVE MARKETS-Opening snapshot: a meek start for European shares

LONDON, April 4 (Reuters) - Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of European equity

markets brought to you by Reuters stocks reporters and anchored today by Julien Ponthus. Reach

him on Messenger to share your thoughts on market moves:

julien.ponthus.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net

OPENING SNAPSHOT: A MEEK START FOR EUROPEAN SHARES (0730 GMT)

European have pulled into negative territory after a broadly flat open as cyclical stocks

such as financials and miners weigh, while tech is the biggest sectoral faller.

Among individual stock movers, shares in ad firm WPP (Frankfurt: A1J2BZ - news) are down around 3 percent after

the company said that it was going to probe an allegation of personal misconduct against its

chief executive, Martin Sorrell, who denied wrongdoing.

Aside from that, Q1 results are boosting shares in German IT-leasing specialist Grenke

.

So it's pretty quiet. Let's see what the release of March flash inflation figures for the

Euro zone brings later on in the session.

Here's your opening snapshot:

(Kit Rees)

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WHAT'S ON OUR RADAR FOR THE EUROPEAN OPEN (0638 GMT)

There’s no clear direction set yet for the open as investors need to decide whether they

should or shouldn't worry about an escalation in the trade war saga or whether FANGs and tech

stocks are finally set for a beating.

On the latter, the successful listing of Spotify is definitely seen as good news and there

were encouraging headlines for the sector: the largest American business (Other OTC: ARBU - news) lobby group came to the

defense of Amazon after a multi-day Twitter (Frankfurt: A1W6XZ - news) attack by Trump, Samsung is set to forecast a near

50 percent jump in quarterly profit and Tesla's share price rose after the company denied it

needs to raise fresh capital.

Here are a few headlines which might have an impact:

* Ad group WPP to probe alleged misconduct by CEO Sorrell, who rejects accusations

* Swiss Re (LSE: 0QL6.L - news) says SoftBank (Swiss: SOFB.SW - news) stake won't exceed 10 pct, talks at early stage

* UK's Topps Tiles Q2 sales dip on colder weather, softer market

* LafargeHolcim (LSE: 0QKY.L - news) says Schmidheiny to step down from board

* Smith & Nephew (Frankfurt: 502816 - news) names Namal Nawana new CEO

* UK shop prices fall at fastest pace in over a year - BRC (Shanghai: 600466.SS - news)

* U.S. unveils tariffs on $50 bln worth of Chinese imports

* Strong economy, discounts boost automakers U.S. March sales

* Spotify shares jump in record-setting direct listing

(Julien Ponthus and Kit Rees)

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FUTURES FOR EUROPEAN BOURSES GO SIDEWAYS (0614 GMT)

It seems European bourses are set to open sideways this morning as there still isn't any

clear directional trend.

FTSE and IBEX futures are slightly down, while DAX and CAC futures are in positive

territory:

(Julien Ponthus)

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MORNING CALL: NO CLEAR DIRECTION SEEN AT THE OPEN YET (0515 GMT)

Good morning and welcome to Live Markets.

Financial spreadbetters expect London's FTSE to open 8 points lower but are slightly more

optimistic for Frankfurt's DAX and Paris' CAC, which are seen opening 25 points and 5 points

higher respectively.

Asian shares faltered overnight as simmering fears of a Sino (Dusseldorf: 1205802.DU - news) -U.S. trade war overshadowed a

bounce on Wall Street and left investors reluctant to take positions in anything.

(Julien Ponthus)

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