LIVE MARKETS-A "technical" correction, or more fundamental weakness?

Feb 12 (Reuters) - 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

A "TECHNICAL" CORRECTION, OR MORE FUNDAMENTAL WEAKNESS? (0727 GMT)

That's the question on everyone's lips after a weekend of mulling over the most serious

sell-off to hit markets in years.

UniCredit (EUREX: DE000A163206.EX - news) global chief economist Erik Nielsen says while most market commentators have

labelled this correction as mainly "technical", it's worth digging into the reasons why more

fundamental drivers could be at play, especially in the US.

"My fear of more fundamental weakness relates only to the US, which really is at the centre

of the present markets chaos," writes Nielsen (EUREX: 11400372.EX - news) , arguing the US economy may be in more trouble

than widely thought.

"If US balance sheet issues are causing trouble, then we may be in for a more complicated -

and volatile - ride during 2018 that'll see US equities slide through must of the year, as US

yields climb higher."

Nielsen sees non-US equities as likely to de-couple therefore, as Europe and Asia benefit

from more moderate valuations, better relative growth and 'much stronger' balance sheets.

"In contrast to European firms, US companies are much more exposed to rising financing costs

because of recent years' strong increase in net debt," he notes, adding most of this money was

used to inflate shareholder payouts rather than for investment.

Nielsen adds a word of warning on thinking it's all over too soon: "Corrections are rarely

done within 10 working days. On average these types of disruptions normally rumble on for 30-40

days."

Fasten (Shenzhen: 000890.SZ - news) your seatbelts...

(Helen Reid)

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DAX FUTURES SHINE (0713 GMT)

Stock index futures are pointing to a strong rebound in Europe this morning after the

region's equity market lost 5 percent, or around 1 trillion euros in market cap, during

last week's sell-off.

DAX futures are leading the advance, up 2 percent, as you can see below. Meanwhile,

S&P 500 e-mini futures are up 0.6 percent.

(Danilo Masoni)

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EUROPEAN HEADLINES: EARLY MORNING ROUND-UP (0646 GMT)

Heineken (LSE: 0O26.L - news) guides for lower margin growth in 2018

Renault (LSE: 0NQF.L - news) board member quits ahead of CEO succession meeting

Credit Suisse (IOB: 0QP5.IL - news) hit by U.S. lawsuit over writedowns, says case "without merit"

Standard Life Aberdeen takes on Mexican airport developer in rare move

Airbus ordered to pay $99 mln fine in Eurofighter case

Intesa chairman says sale of bad loan unit won't take long

Maersk profit miss, outlook put shipping shift in spotlight

Switzerland's Clariant (IOB: 0QJS.IL - news) halts strategic update pending talks with SABIC

Ladbrokes Coral (LSE: LAD.L - news) reports 4 pct rise in full year revenue

UK's Tesco (Frankfurt: 852647 - news) is plans a chain of discount stores -Sunday Times

Cardiff University defends joint venture with Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) supplier IQE

Italy's Carige bank pledges to act more quickly to cut bad debts

MEDIA-French insurer CNP could be merged with La Banque Postale -report

BRIEF-CGG Raises About 112.2 Million Euros In Rights Issue

Switzerland's Clariant halts strategic update pending talks with SABIC

Vontobel must pay 13.3 mln euros over untaxed German assets

Nestle (Swiss: NESN.VX - news) buys majority stake in organic food company Terrafertil

EU says Bayer Monsanto must not hurt competition in digital farming-paper

BMW (EUREX: BMWE.EX - news) close to 10-year supply deal for battery minerals - FAZ

Porsche, Audi (IOB: 0FG8.IL - news) to develop joint electric car platform to save costs

South Africa's Wiese slashes stake in Steinhoff to 6.2 pct

Suedzucker (IOB: 0G7B.IL - news) sees 2 yr transition after deregulation - Boersen-Zeitung

BRIEF-Carl Zeiss Meditec Sees FY Adj EBIT Margin At 14-16 Pct

(Danilo Masoni)

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ETF, DARK POOL TRADING BALLOONED DURING SELL-OFF (0634 GMT)

Stats from last week's sell-off reveal exchange-traded funds saw massive trading volumes on

the London Stock Exchange (Other OTC: LDNXF - news) , while the exchange's dark pool cleared record amounts of trades as

investors sought to put through large block trades incognito.

Last Tuesday was the strongest day of ETF trading activity ever on the LSE, a spokeswoman

said, with some 1.3 billion pounds traded in ETFs (Shenzhen: 395013.SZ - news) .

Dark pool Turquoise saw a record amount processed in its large block platform Plato Block

Discovery, with 2.46 billion euros in trading over the week as investors sought to put through

big trades without moving the market.

Turquoise overall beat its previous weekly record by 18 percent, with 7.43 billion euros

worth of trades executed in the dark.

(Helen Reid)

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MORNING CALL: A TENTATIVE BOUNCE? (0622 GMT)

Good morning and welcome to Live Markets.

European investors will be returning to their desks this morning having had time to digest

the past week's events, and a tentative bounce in European stocks could give them hope, while

volatility is set to stay elevated.

Asian stock markets recovered overnight with S&P futures also trading higher, but investors

were looking ahead to U.S. consumer prices data due out on Wednesday for the next potential sign

of inflation rising at a concerning pace.

Spreadbetters call the DAX 175 points higher at 12,281.8, the CAC 40 up 56 points at

5,135.1, and the FTSE 100 83 points higher at 7,175.5.

(Helen Reid)

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