LIVE MARKETS-A stellar day for tech as SAP and Wirecard soar

* European shares close lower after choppy day

* Credit Suisse rises as profit tops view

* SAP soars after strong update, Elliott backing

* Autos fall after Nissan cuts profit forecast

* Nasdaq hits record, S&P500 nears all-time high in early trading

Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of European equity markets brought to you by Reuters

stocks reporters and anchored today by Danilo Masoni. Reach him on Messenger to share your

thoughts on market moves: danilo.masoni.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net

A STELLAR DAY FOR TECH AS SAP AND WIRECARD SOAR (1551 GMT)

Tech stocks have been the star of the show today, with the Nasdaq hitting new records over

on Wall Street and Europe's tech sector sealing its biggest one-day jump since August 2015, up

3.9 percent.

The drivers? Two big injections of cash into European tech companies: SAP has notched up a

healthy 12.6 percent gain after Elliott bought a $1.3 billion stake in the company, while

Wirecard surged 8.5 percent on news Softbank will invest around $1 billion in it.

Chipmaker STMicro also jumped 5 percent after its results in which it struck an upbeat tone

for the second half, soothing investors' worries about the semiconductor cycle.

Stay tuned for a hefty harvest of results tomorrow - heavy hitters include Anglo American,

Barclays, Bayer, Hermes, Kuehne & Nagel, Peugeot, Saint-Gobain, Swedbank, and UBS.

(Helen Reid)

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DAX SHRUGS OFF IFFY IFO (1325 GMT)

The DAX is steaming ahead, up 0.4 percent set for its ninth straight day of gains and far

outperforming the rest of the region, despite a disappointing Ifo business survey.

It's largely to do with SAP and Wirecard and seems out of whack with German business morale

deteriorating again in April, dashing hopes for a small improvement.

With Europe so underowned, this isn't the first time equities in the region shrug off poor

macro data. Remember last week when disappointing euro-zone business activity surveys triggered

a wave of short covering?

But what happened this time?

We asked Markus Huber, trader at City of London Markets:

"Weak Q1 domestic economic and corporate growth is clearly priced in and markets seem to be

confident that the first half of 2019 will see a bottom followed by a strong rebound later in

the year."

He adds: "While to some it might feel that the stock market is getting ahead of itself,

especially when it comes to ignoring bad news like today's Ifo, at the same time however

momentum remains strong and liquidity plenty meaning markets might still have further to go."

(Danilo Masoni and Helen Reid)

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CRUDE RUSH: TIME TO PILE INTO OIL STOCKS? (1151 GMT)

Oil & gas stocks are in the red today, but the recent jump in crude prices is driving some

investors to look anew at the sector which - along with other cyclical parts of the market -

fell out of favour last year.

Crude oil prices are hovering just below six-month highs hit earlier this week after a rally

driven by anxiety about tight supply.

"We expect the market to tighten further and continue to expect Brent to trade in a

$70-80/barrel range this quarter," write UBS Wealth Management strategists.

"A higher oil price supports our preference for energy stocks in the euro zone," they add.

Investors may still be wary of oil stocks which, for a long period in 2017-18, stubbornly

lagged rising crude prices. But, as you can see below, earnings expectations are recovering

somewhat and global oil stocks have been more reactive to the price of black gold.

(Helen Reid)

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EUROPE'S RALLYING BUT ANALYSTS ARE STILL CUTTING Q1 ESTIMATES (1029 GMT)

SAP is stealing the limelight today, with better-than-expected results and a major

endorsement from activist investor Elliott sending shares to fresh records and adding a whopping

10 billion euros to its market capitalisation.

The gains along with Wirecard are helping Frankfurt far outperform its European

peers and are helping boost the STOXX 600.

Even STMicro is getting a lift as investors focus on the chipmaker's in-line FY outlook and

ignore disappointing Q1 numbers and a dismal summary of the market from Texas Instruments

overnight. We saw something similar after Lufthansa's profit warning last week.

We're only just at the beginning of the reporting season, but of the 19 STOXX 600 companies

that had released results as of last night, an impressive 74 percent exceeded analyst

expectations (in a typical quarter half beat and 41 percent miss).

That highlights again just how low expectations were for Q1 and may bode well for more

positive surprises.

But forecasts for Q1 earnings in Europe continue to deteriorate. Analysts on average now

expect Q1 earnings per share for STOXX 600-listed companies to fall 4.2 percent, down sharply

from an estimated 3.4 percent last week, according to the latest I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv

released last night. That compares with 4.3 percent growth a year ago.

The table is much worse than the 1.3-percent drop expected on the S&P 500 where forecasts

have generally stabilised in recent weeks.

Europe's still on track for the slowest pace of earnings growth in three years though, as

this chart shows:

Still today's optimism may be justified - the outlook is improving slightly with analysts on

average expecting 3.8 percent EPS growth in Q2, up from 3.7 percent estimated last week.

(Josephine Mason)

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"THIS IS NOT A 'BUY EUROPE' NOTE" (0904 GMT)

European equities are unloved and the scale of outflows is now tempting contrarians and

fuelling debate over when and if time is ripe for a comeback.

Bernstein strategists led by Inigo Fraser-Jenkins have weighed in the discussion with a note

looking at what would make American and Asian investors buy Europe?

But to avoid any misunderstanding the make it clear quite higher up that "This is not a "buy

Europe" note"!

"Yes, we are strong believers in taking contrarian views and the scale of the outflows are

probably the key thing in favour of future returns on European equities right now. However, we

don't think that is yet enough to be a trigger in itself," they say.

"For the UK, the Brexit can has been kicked down the road... There also remains the risk of

a general election and a Corbyn victory. Our recommendation to global investors earlier this

year was just to avoid the UK and that remains the same," they add.

"For Continental Europe there is potentially a more interesting case. The latest bank

lending survey for Q1 released on 9th April shows a slight uptick in loan demand from

corporates... This is something that could evolve into an outright signal to tactically buy

Europe, but we don’t think that we are quite there yet," they add.

In this snapshot you can see the European outflows. Bernstein notes that they have been so

large that they have undone all of the inflows since Draghi's "whatever it takes" speech of July

2012.

(Danilo Masoni)

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STOXX DIPS, CS SOARS, SAP BREAKS RECORD, AUTOS SLIDE (0746 GMT)

European shares are off to a weaker start this morning with the STOXX 600 falling just a bit

(0.2 percent) after hitting fresh eight-month highs in the previous session. Under the surface

there are much bigger moves for single stocks as the earnings season gets into full swing.

Credit Suisse was up a healthy 3 percent, hitting its highest since mid-October,

after its Q1 profit beat expectations as larger-than-expected wealth management gains offset

investment banking declines.

In the same sector Deutsche Bank fell and UBS rose after the FT reported

that the asset management arms of the two banks are in "serious" merger talks.

Tech was in focus with SAP rallying more than 6 percent to a record high after the

software group set ambitious new medium-term profit targets and activist

shareholder Elliott, disclosing it has bought a 1.2 billion euro stake in the company, said it

backed management's strategy.

Its shares were the biggest single stock boost to the STOXX 600, followed by pharma

heavyweight Novartis, which rose 2 percent after it lifted its 2019 outlook.

STMicro shrugged off a gloomy prediction by bigger rival Texas Instruments after

posting a broadly inline update, which sent its shares up more than 2 percent. Liberum analysts

said STM's FY sales guidance was in line with consensus.

Wirecard, meanwhile, shot up 7 percent, on news Japan's Softbank Group will buy a

5.6 percent stake in the payments firm for around 900 million euro.

Elsewhere autos were a weak spot, down 1.7 percent, after Nissan Motor slashed its

full-year profit forecast to its lowest in nearly a decade due to weakness in the United States.

Here's your opening snapshot.

(Danilo Masoni)

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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW AT THE OPEN (0659 GMT)

European shares are expected to pull back from early August highs today as signs that China

has put broader stimulus measures on hold offset enthusiasm over strong U.S. earnings that

pushed Wall Street to record closing highs.

Futures on main country indexes are down around 0.2 percent, indicating that European

equities are set for a pause after eight straight session of gains as the Q1 reporting season

gets underway.

Credit Suisse kicked off the season for European investment banks with an unexpected

earnings rise and said it was cautiously optimistic about the second quarter following a

challenging start to the year.

Its results, which sent CS shares rising 2 percent in premarket trading, will be followed by

those from UBS and Barclays on Thursday and Deutsche Bank on Friday, while BNP, HSBC and Societe

Generale will update the markets next week.

The sector will also be watched after the FT said UBS and Deutsche Bank are in asset

management merger talks.

By the end of next week more than half of Europe's market cap will have reported its

results. According to Deutsche Bank, aggregate earnings are expected to have fallen 6 percent in

Q1 but then recover to a positive growth rate in the following three quarters.

Chipmakers however could be a weak spot after STMicroelectronics cut its full-year

investment target and Texas Instruments said a slowdown in demand for microchips that started

late last year may last a few more quarters.

Still in tech, shares in software maker SAP were seen higher after strong results, while

Wirecard was up more than 6 percent before the open on news that Japan's Softbank has agreed to

buy a 5.6 percent stake in German payments company by acquiring convertible bonds worth around

900 million euros.

Here some mainly UK-focused headlines, for more check out the previous post.

Aviva's UK insurance boss to step down, management review to begin

AB Foods earnings held back by sugar

UBS, Deutsche Bank in asset management merger talks - FT

Antofagasta copper output rises as Centinela mine shines

UK online fashion retailer Boohoo posts 49 pct profit rise

Centamin reports better-than-expected Q1 gold output

(Danilo Masoni)

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ON OUR RADAR: CREDIT SUISSE PROFIT BEAT AND MORE EARNINGS (0556 GMT)

While financial spreadbetters are pointing to a weaker open despite strong earnings lifted

Wall Street to record closing highs, it seems there is some good-looking earnings news to digest

also here in Europe.

Credit Suisse kicked off the season for European investment banks with an

unexpected earnings rise and said it was cautiously optimistic about the second quarter

following a challenging start to the year.

Results from CS will be followed by those from UBS and Barclays on Thursday and Deutsche

Bank on Friday, while BNP, HSBC and Societe Generale will update the markets next week.

Wirecard will also be in focus after news that Japan's Softbank Group has

agreed to buy a 5.6 percent stake in German payments company by acquiring convertible bonds

worth around 900 million euros.

"We see today’s news as a clear positive for Wirecard with SoftBank as new anchor

shareholder in the company," says Baader Helvea analyst Knut Woller.

Elsewhere earnings updates will be the main focus. This week looks the busiest in terms of

number of companies reporting their numbers (as you see in this DB chart published last week).

Here below some more headlines, mostly earnings-related.

Swedish truckmaker Volvo Q1 profit beats forecast

Dutch staffing firm Randstad Q1 earnings beat expectations

STMicro cuts 2019 spending target on slowing chip demand

Remy Cointreau keeps profit growth goal even as China weighs on Q4

Novartis boosts 2019 outlook on rising Cosentyx, Entresto sales

SAP sets new mid-term margin targets after Q1 operating loss

Sweden's Tele2 core profit beats forecast

UBS, Deutsche Bank in asset management merger talks - FT

(Danilo Masoni)

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EUROPEAN STOCKS SEEN EASING FROM AUGUST HIGHS (0527 GM)

European shares are expected to pull back at the open after reaching fresh eight-month highs

in the previous session as the earnings season gathers pace and ahead of the release today of

the IFO German business climate data.

"After the ZEW survey showed improving sentiment investors are hopeful that the IFO data

will show similar results posting another strong beat. The headline business gauge is expected

to increase to 99.9 as it continues to rebound from a 5 year low," says Jasper Lawler, Head of

Research at LCG in London.

Financial spreadbetters at IG expect London's FTSE to open 20 points lower at 7,503,

Frankfurt's DAX to open 41 points lower at 12,194 and Paris' CAC to open 13 points lower at

5,578. Yesterday the STOXX 600 benchmark ended at its highest level since August 7.

Over in Asia, shares faltered amid losses in South Korea and worries that China has put any

further stimulus on hold as the economy shows signs of regaining its footing.

(Danilo Masoni)

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($1 = 0.8918 euros)