LIVE MARKETS-Thiamxit, a "terrible mistake"?

Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of European equity markets brought to you by Reuters stocks reporters. You can share your thoughts with Thyagaraju Adinarayan (thyagaraju.adinarayan@tr.com), Joice Alves (joice.alves@tr.com), Julien Ponthus (julien.ponthus@tr.com) in London and Danilo Masoni (danilo.masoni@tr.com) in Milan.

THIAMXIT, A "TERRIBLE MISTAKE"?

Tidjane Thiam's exit as Credit Sussie's CEO has got a cold welcome from investors with the stock falling 3.5% as his exit is seen raising the risk of some friction between the bank's top shareholders and the board.

Though his departure was an option given the media spotlight on the bank's spying scandal, he was still backed by some of the bank's largest shareholders.

One of them, Harris Associates, recently said ousting Thiam would be a "terrible mistake", arguing that the CEO, who managed the turnaround, should stay on.

Thiam is credited with sharpening CS's focus on wealth management, scaling back investment banking and shoring up its balance sheet.

"We feel this (Thiam's exit) was seen as a distant prospect for most international investors to whom this outcome will come as a surprise," Citi says.

Looking at the share price this morning, it's not a good one.

(Thyagaraju Adinarayan)

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OPENING SNAPSHOT: SLIDING DOWN VERY GENTLY (0835 GMT)

The STOXX 600 is off 0.2%, sliding down only very gently considering the overall negative tone of this morning's corporate and macro announcement.

Top news comes with top market reaction and Credit Suisse is down 4% after Tidjane Thiam quit the bank. Premarket indications from traders had shown limited market reaction.

Other big moves this morning are Norsk Hydro, down 7.3% after its earnings miss and Belgium's Umicore down 5% after its trading update.

Burberry's warning on how the virus will impact demand is only dragging the stock down 2%, which means investors are clearly not pushing the panic button. Also worth noting that the stock has fallen 15% since the virus outbreak in China.

On that note L'Oreal is the top gainer in France with a 3% rise and investors visibly pleased with its results even as it warns on the coronavirus impact to China sales.

Finland's Nokia and Sweden's Ericsson have also made their way to the happy few club, no doubt after Attorney General William Barr said the U.S. and its allies should consider taking a "controlling stake" in the companies to counter China's Huawei.

Shares in Norwegian fertiliser-maker Yara are also up a whopping 6% after reporting stronger-than-expected quarterly profits and teasing that a decision on a long-planned spinoff of its industrials unit could be made by mid-2020.

(Julien Ponthus)

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ON THE RADAR: THIAMXIT AND BURBERRY'S VIRUS WARNING (0742 GMT)

There's no way around it, the surprise resignation of Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam is on the top of the news agenda this morning even if there's limited scope for a wider market price impact on the rest of the European banking sector. At the moment, pre-market indications suggest it doesn't seem that the stock of the Swiss bank itself will make a big move at the open.

In terms of spillover effects, Burberry warning that the outbreak of the coronavirus in China is hurting luxury demand is likely to hurt its French and Italian peers. Premarket indications show the British group is likely to take a big (5%) hit at the open.

It should also make investors worried that the threat of the virus has been downplayed, well, more worried. Last evening France's L'Oreal also said the health crisis would have a short-term hit on its Asian business.

A list of companies telling their shareholders that the epidemic will hurt their balance sheet can be found here:

On that note we've got a pretty interesting story on how the global container shipping trade is struggling to cope with the disruption caused by the virus:

There's still quite a lot of Q4 action going on with notably Belgium's Umicore, which has already surged close to 80% since the summer, reporting a better-than-expected operating profit for 2019. Also a decent beat for Norwegian fertiliser-maker Yara with October-December profits.

In the bruised basic material sector, aluminium producer Norsk Hydro missed expectations and seems to be heading for a plunge when the market opens.

A big one for merger arbitrage hedge funds is EU antitrust authorities opening an in-depth investigation into Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica's 7.2 billion euro bid for Dutch opticians group GrandVision.

Another quite extraordinary item which somewhat went under our radar last afternoon is Attorney General William Barr saying the U.S. and its allies should consider taking a "controlling stake" in Finland's Nokia and Sweden's Ericsson to counter China-based Huawei's dominance in next-generation 5G wireless technology.

(Julien Ponthus)

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MORNING CALL: TIME FOR A BREATHER? (0634 GMT)

European stocks have enjoyed four straight sessions of gains in what has been their best week yet since December 2016.

Futures are however currently trading slightly in the red, suggesting the time may have come for some kind of a breather.

Financial spreadbetters at IG expect Frankfurt's DAX to open 28 points down, Paris' CAC to retreat 5 points and London's FTSE to lose 7 points.

While Wall Street reached new highs on Thursday, Asian markets closed in negative territory as doubts over whether investors jumped the gun in shrugging fears about the coronavirus epidemic crept in.

With no clear direction set at the moment, the U.S. non-farm payrolls may be key later on this afternoon to finally set the mood.

(Julien Ponthus)

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(Reporting by Danilo Masoni, Joice Alves, Julien Ponthus and Thyagaraju Adinarayan)